Nene

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An endangered goose species found only on the Hawaiian islands, where it is the official state bird
2. A rare, pale-faced wild goose endemic to Hawaii, known for its grooved neck and lack of webbed feet
3. A small, native Hawaiian goose with buff-colored plumage that has been protected from extinction through conservation efforts

Etymology: The nene is a goose found only in Hawaii, and its name is an imitation of the bird's own call. The Hawaiian word "nēnē" echoes the sound the goose makes, so the name is onomatopoeic rather than a borrowing of some older descriptive term. English took the word straight from Hawaiian, keeping the call-based name that Hawaiian speakers gave the bird. The species is known to science as Branta sandvicensis, a name that reflects the older English name for the islands, the Sandwich Islands, where Captain James Cook's voyages brought European attention. Today it is the world's rarest goose, and its survival owes much to decades of conservation work on the islands where it lives.

Synonyms: Hawaiian goose