Proto Polynesian: *Renga
REFLEXES IN SOME POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES:
Tongan: Enga (Prepared root of Curcuma longa [Zingiberaceae])
Niuean: Ega ("Rosy, overripe".)
Samoan: Lega (Prepared root of C. longa).
Tahitian: Re'a (Zingiber zerumbet; C. longa)
Marquesan: 'Eka, 'Ena (C. longa)
Hawaiian: Lena (C. longa - plant; also "Yellow"); 'olena (C. longa)
Tuamotuan: Renga (C. longa)
Rarotongan: Renga (C. longa)
Maori: Rengarenga (Arthropodium cirrhatum [Anthericaceae]; also Tetragonia tetragonioides [Aizoaceae] - Rengamutu)

COGNATE REFLEXES IN SOME OTHER AUSTRONESIAN LANGUAGES
Mota (Vanuatu): Re-renga ("Yolk of an egg, yellow colour")
Kiribati (Philippines): Renga (Curcuma longa, "Turmeric", Zingaberaceae)
Bauan (Fiji): Rerenga (Powdered root of Curcuma longa, "Turmeric", Zingaberaceae)

Watch this space! This is one of the pages written in the prototype stage of this web site, which has been transferred with minimal changes to the newer format. It is still therefore "under construction", but contains the essential linguistic and botanical information, along with other material. Updated text and more pictures will be added progressively as soon as time permits (new pages for plant names not yet discussed are being given priority). If you would like this page to be updated sooner than planned, please email a note to temaarareo at gmail.com.

This word seems to have referred originally to yellow materials, especially turmeric, the powdered root of a cultivated plant of the ginger family, Curcuma longa, which was carried throughout the tropical Pacific by Austronesian explorers. In Samoa and Tonga the plant itself is known as ango, but in Eastern Polynesia reflexes of *renga seem to have included the plant as well. Throughout Polynesia words derived from *renga also generally denote the colour yellow, and also the yolk of an egg.

In Samoa the main use of tumeric is a yellow dye (lega) made from the root. In Hawaii, yellow colouring extracted from young roots was also used for a dye for tapa, but the plant had medicinal uses and religious significance as well. Isabella Abbott (Lā'au Hawai'i) notes that salt water in which the underground stem of the 'olena had been stirred was sprinkled "on people, places and objects" in purification ceremonies (p. 116). Medicinally, strained juice from mature roots was used to treat earache and some nasal problems (p.101).

If the turmeric plant was carried to Aotearoa, it failed to thrive here, but the name was transferred to a local herb with tuberous roots which also had medicinal properties (Rengarenga, Arthropodium cirrhatum).