kowhain.
/ˈkɔːfʌɪ/, /ˈkəʊwʌɪ/, /ˈkəʊhʌɪ/, U.S. /ˈkɔˌfaɪ/, /ˈkɑˌfaɪ/, /ˈkoʊˌwaɪ/, /ˈkoʊˌhaɪ/, New Zealand English /ˈkoːfʌi/, /ˈkoːfɑe/, /ˈkoʊwɑe/ New Zealand.
An evergreen shrub or small tree, Sophora tetraptera, of the family Leguminosæ, native to New Zealand and bearing racemes of yellow flowers.
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kowhai1831
locust tree1867
pelu1884
1831 G. Bennett in London Med. Gaz. 12 Nov. 182/1 Sophora tetraptera... This tree is the Kowhy, or Kongia, of the natives, and attains the height of from forty to fifty feet.
1845 E. J. Wakefield Adventure in N.Z. I. 58 The kohai..with bright yellow blossoms.
1860 J. Blair N. Zeal. The land of the goai tree.
1872 A. Domett Ranolf & Amohia vi. i. 107 Amohia,..scarlet-crowned with Kowhai-flowers.
1883 F. S. Renwick Betrayed 42 Gather the kowhai, wet with showers.
1896 R. Kipling Seven Seas 113 Buy the kowhai's gold Flung for gift on Taupo's face.
1897 D. McK. Wright Station Ballads & Other Verses 123 There are dreams in the gold of the kowhai.
1926 Trans. & Proc. N.Z. Inst. 56 670 ‘Kowhai’ went through many stages—‘goa’, ‘gohi’, etc., before settling to the two forms ‘kowhai’ in the North and ‘gowhai’ or ‘gowai’ in the South.
1947 O. Ruhen in Coast to Coast 1946 1 Old gold blossom freckled the untidy lattice of brown boughs that the kowhais threw up on the top of the bank.
1952 ‘J. Guthrie’ Paradise Bay i. 12 In a kowhai bush, among the yellow beak-shaped blossom.
1966 New Statesman 16 Dec. 915/3 The beach itself is sheltered by..bush patched with yellow and gold kowhai bloom and white clematis.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1901; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1831