PE

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 , 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."