Interesting Searches for Hawaiian Slang

A quick review of recent searches here at Pulpconnection reveal some interesting sought for terms. There are searches for howlie, maho, and shoots. I can only guess, but “howlie” has to be haole aka the white person as explained in 21 Slangs Words You Should Know Before Visiting Hawaii (Part 1).

“Maho” I’m assuming is the transvestite mahu. I doubt the search was looking for the Hawaiian garb “malo.”

And then there’s “shoots.” Not chutes but shoots. Coincidentally, I recently used shoots in an informal email to a coworker. It was mot juste so I went with it, but I began thinking about the term and wondered where it came from. Basically, shoots is akin to an affirmative used to acknowledge or agree with something.

Example

“I going stop by your house around 5.”

“Shoots.”

While shoots can stand alone, it’s frequently preceded by “k’den” or followed by “then” or “brah” – “k’den shoots” or “shoots brah.” What’s the etymology of this word, I have no guess. Just go with it okay? (And this is the part you reply back with “shoots!”).