puripuri

[Mesulam Aisoli]

I understand from my New Ireland background, that "puripuri" is not confined
to "poisonman", in my area we say, "posinman". It is more than that.
Although generally the word itself "puripuri" connotes certain power being
possessed by a magician or even someone who is being attracted to a pretty
girl and wants to perform "puripuri" on her or vice versa. The root of the
word comes from "purpur", that in many parts of the New Guinea Islands
"purpur" covers all beautiful plants, with bright flowers and contain sweet
or strong smell and mostly pretty things come from it. "Malira" or "maliro"
is the action equal to "puripuri" that makes a girl to follow the young man
that performed it. "Puripuri" could even be bad things that could cause
failure to achieve the goal, or someone to get sick etc. Any stranger that
looks strange in a remote village in New Ireland could cause suspicious
interpretation of what sort of person he might be. He could probably be a
"puripuri man".

Mesulam Aisoli.

> ----------
> From: 	John Burton[SMTP:buzzybell at yahoo.com]
> Sent: 	Saturday, 15 December 2001 1:04pm
> To: 	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: 	RE: puripuri
> 
> I guess this alll things are possible. I certainly
> think the lexicon of Pacific Pidgin English was a
> great deal larger than some have previously surmised.
> The absence of puripuri from the Motu dictionary may
> be significant after all ('vada' is I understand the
> primary word). I will pursue Motuan authorities on
> this.
> 
> On the subject of usage elsewhere, it is clear that in
> New Ireland, where I am this week, 'posin' is the
> better understood term (+ 'posinman') and 'puripuri'
> is associated with activities originating in other
> parts of PNG, perhaps the Sepik (the activities, not
> the word).
> 
> 'Poisin' remains the version for the Highlands, and I
> suggest it is conceived of as a physical agent, even
> if actual samples believed to be efficacious are not
> real poisons. For example, deaths in Western Highlands
> are not infrequently attributed to the inadvertent
> ingestion of battery acid, but when I quizzed a doctor
> at the Mt Hagen hospital some years ago, he had never
> encountered a case nor symptoms consistent with
> drinking acid (immediate not slow-acting effects,
> bright red blood frothing at the mouth etc).
> 
> John Burton
> 
> --- "Ross Clark (FOA LING)" <r.clark at auckland.ac.nz>
> wrote:
> >  Since a fully supported local etymology for this
> > word has not yet emerged,
> > I can no longer refrain from mentioning Maori
> > /putiputi/ "flower". This word
> > has no Polynesian source; Williams' dictionary
> > explains it as being from
> > English "pretty-pretty". (It's probably best known
> > from a popular song "He
> > putiputi pai koe".) I note that Mihalic gives
> > flowers as decoration as one
> > of the senses of this word. Any chance of a
> > widespread but little-noticed
> > Pacific pidginism? (I must admit I can't recall
> > coming across any early
> > attestations of such a word.)
> > 
> > Ross Clark
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: John Burton
> > To: Multiple recipients of list
> > Sent: 10/12/2001 8:57 p.m.
> > Subject: Re: puripuri
> > 
> > I wrote a medium lengthy reply the day before
> > yesterday to show why a Motuan origin is preferred,
> > but this disappeared into thin air when I pressed
> > 'send'. Anyway, informants I have asked recently -
> > Motu, Koiari, Moveave - agree on this. Strangely,
> > though, it is not the ?Lister-Turner (Chatterton 2nd
> > ed) dictionary of Motu.
> > 
> > Assuming a Motu origin is correct despite this, some
> > or all of Chalmers, Lawes and MacFarlane, together
> > with their Pacific Islander teachers and crewmen,
> > would have been commuting between Elevala, Daru and
> > Thursday Island during the 1870s and this would
> > easily
> > account for an introduction to the Torres Strait,
> > thence to Cape York, where it is also use, thence to
> > Katherine.
> > 
> > Any further clues?
> > John Burton
> > 
> > 
> > > Where does "puripuri" originate? In the Torres
> > > Strait they swear it's from
> > > their western language Kala Lagaw Ya. Mihalic
> > > doesn't list it and I can't
> > > find it in Muhlhausler's work.
> > > 
> > > [My response is:]
> > > Don't know about the origin, but I know it's used
> > as
> > > far as Katherine in the
> > > Northern Territory, as well as PNG.
> > > Craig Volker
> > 
> > 
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