Spot the Frippet: puku.

We don't have so very many English words borrowed from the Maori language of New Zealand, and of those we do, hongi - the greeting consisting of the rubbing of noses - is currently prohibited by law in a lot of the globe (though we can still use the verbal Maori greeting kia ora, which means, literally, be healthy!).

Similarly, we aren't allowed to visit Rotorua, and the huia is, sadly, (probably) extinct.

But there are plenty of pukus about. Okay so no one is going to know what the word means, but in the circumstances that might be quite tactful because a puku is a stomach or belly.

They come in all shapes and sizes:



well, except square. And triangular. And octagonal...

...but you know what I mean.

Spot the Frippet: puku. This word is Maori.

There is another kind of puku, the Zulu puku. This is a beautiful thing:


this one's from Zambia. Photo by Hanay

but for most of us very hard to spot.