niun.
/ˈniːuː/, U.S. /ˈniu/, New Zealand English /ˈniu/, /ˈnɪuː/ New Zealand. Now historical.
A tall, mast-like Maori ceremonial pole used in divination. Also more fully niu pole, niu rod.Originally set up in the 19th cent. by followers of the Pai Marire religion as the focus of their worship.
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the mind > mental capacity > expectation > foresight, foreknowledge > prediction, foretelling > divination > [noun] > instrument of
teraphim1382
niu1864
1864 A. S. Atkinson Jrnl. 11 Oct. in Richmond-Atkinson Papers (1960) II. 125 In the flat open space behind the pa there was a pole (or niu) standing used in this new Pai Marirè religion.
1890 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 19 108 No food is cooked in the settlement the day before a war party departs, until the priest has gone through his divination by the niu (throwing spears of fern stalk).
1904 E. Tregear Maori Race 336 [The priest] cast the niu rods, or interpreted the ‘jerkings’ (takin) of the limbs or body of a sleeping man.
1949 P. H. Buck Coming of Maori (1950) iii. 474 Possession was practised by the fanatical followers of the late post-European sect known as hauhau, when dancing around a pole termed the niu.
1983 Listener (N.Z.) 31 Mar. 20 More significant are the Niu poles, erected in the early 1860s and well-known to canoeists who traverse the river today.
1990 K. Sinclair Oxf. Illustr. Hist. New Zealand vii. 159 On the ropes of the niu, the faithful hung many flags as statements of religious identity.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1864- make foul water
- make freck
- make free with
- make friends
- make friends of
- make friends to
- make friends with
- make frith
- make front to
- make frontier
- make full sethe
- make fun of
- make gallows-apples of
- make gallowsapples of
- make game
- make game at
- make game of
- make game on
- make give force
- make glad
- make gladness
- make glee
- make glose
- make go
- make good