Waka

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈwʌkʌ/

Definitions

1. A poetic style from Japan distinguished by its fixed syllable count and heartfelt themes specifically in five-line compositions
2. This literary form, rooted in Japanese tradition, is identified by its structured verses and expressive reflections often related to nature
3. A traditional Japanese poetic form characterized by its specific syllable structure, typically consisting of five lines that convey deep emotions and imagery related to the natural world

Etymology: The Japanese poetic form and the Māori canoe share a spelling and a pronunciation in English, but they are unrelated words that happen to converge on the same sound. For the poetry, the Japanese term 和歌 combines 和, a Chinese-derived gloss used as a name for Japan, with 歌, meaning "song". The name thus means something like "Japanese song", a label that set native Japanese verse apart from poetry written in Chinese. The canoe word has an entirely different source. English borrowed it from Māori, the language of New Zealand, where "waka" denotes a canoe, and it reached English through contact with the Māori people rather than through Japanese. The English noun for the poetry is a borrowing of the Japanese word itself, and it keeps its original spelling and sound, so the two senses sit side by side in English dictionaries.

Synonyms: poem, verse, stanza, lyric, composition