hongi

(redirected from hongis)

hon·gi

(hŏng′gē) New Zealand

intr.v. hon·gied, hon·gi·ing, hong·ies

To greet another or exchange greetings in Maori fashion by touching or pressing noses together.

The act or an instance of making such a greeting.

[Maori, to smell, sniff, hongi, from Proto-Polynesian *songi.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

hongi

(ˈhɒŋiː)

NZ a form of salutation expressed by touching noses

[Māori]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

References in periodicals archive ?

British and Irish Lions captain Brian O'Driscoll exchanges hongis, the traditional Maori greeting, with Don Rangi from New Zealand Maori Rugby Board

Rugby Union: Cueto relishes opportunity to repeat his England class

Williams writes: Nowhere is the 1999 campaign more redolent of late colonial themes than in the image on the cover of the promotion booklet in which an old man with full facial tattoos hongis a young girl.