Fornander:
"PE, adj. Marqu., bad, impudent, naked. Ta., pe, rotten, decayed. Sam., pe, be dead, as trees, extinguished, as fire, dried up, as water. Haw., pe, to crush, pound fine; pepe, broken, bruised, pliable, rotten, soft; u-pepe, weak, feeble, dry. Fiji., be, impudent, irreverent.
Benfey (Sanskr. Dict.) refers the Latin pejor, pessimus, pecco, to a Sanskrit word, pāpa, evil, wicked, sinful. The Polynesian pe apparently offers a better and more direct root for pejor, pecco, &c.
Benfey gives no root or etymon of pāpa, nor, if derived from pā, to protect, to guard, how the transition is made to wickedness, crime, sin. Here as in so many instances, the Polynesian supplies the missing-link in the Hawaiian verb papa, 'to prohibit, forbid, rebuke, reprove', a derivative or duplicate of pa, 'to fence, enclose, restrict'. And thus the transition from the Polynesian papa, prohibited, forbidden, to the Sanskrit pāpa, sinful, wicked, becomes easy and intelligible."