atua
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of atua
Māori
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The objects of worship among the Tahitians, next to the atua or gods, were the oramatuas tiis or spirits.
From The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Vol. II by Sir James George Frazer
He, and other 'original gods' of his making, are carefully and absolutely discriminated from the atua, which are 'the human soul after its separation from the body.'
From The Making of Religion by Andrew Lang
The word tupua is supposed by some to mean the deified spirits of chiefs, and to mean that they constituted a separate order from the atua, who were the original gods.
From The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Vol. II by Sir James George Frazer
An interesting instance of this is given in Colenso's Maori Lexicon as illustrated by the meaning of the Maori word atua.
From Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 The Evolution of Modesty; The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity; Auto-Erotism by Havelock Ellis
Even the priest was puzzled, this, he said, was clearly a deceitful spirit, or atua, like those of which Porphyry complains, like most of them in fact.
From Cock Lane and Common-Sense by Andrew Lang
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