heiau means A temple in traditional Hawaiian society. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
heiau is pronounced /ˈheɪaʊ/.
Why “heiau” is a great word
HEIAU — [Noun] A temple or sacred enclosure, often a stone platform, used for worship and ceremony in traditional Hawaiian society. A borrowing from Hawaiian heiau; the earliest known use in English is from the 1820s. Some scholarly analysis suggests a possible origin from Hawaiian hai ("to sacrifice"). Unlike a "church," a roofed structure for congregational worship, or an "altar," a focal point for offerings, a heiau is the entire open-air precinct itself. It is the stark geometry of stacked lava rock holding back the jungle's green encroach, the scent of rain on dry pili grass, and the resonant silence where chants once climbed toward the gods; a testament that the sacred is not a shelter from the world, but a specific, charged arrangement of it.
Etymology
From Hawaiian heiau.
noun
- A temple in traditional Hawaiian society.“The basalt was also piled to outline large squares in the ceremonial centres known as heiau'''s.”