pulu

American  

[poo-loo] / ˈpu lu /

noun

1. a soft, elastic vegetable fiber of yellow-brown hue obtained from the young fronds of Hawaiian tree ferns, used for mattress and pillow stuffing.

---

Etymology

Origin of pulu

Borrowed into English from Hawaiian around 1825–35

Example Sentences

Cited in 1872, polo is a rendering of a Balti Tibetan word, pulu, or "ball," that target of the sport's swinging mallets.

From Salon • Aug. 7, 2021

He pointed out that polo was played many centuries ago by the horsemen of Tibet who gave it its name pulu.

From Time Magazine Archive

From a variety of this tree-fern the natives take a substance called pulu, a fine, soft, brown fuzz, used for stuffing pillows and mattresses.

From Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands by Nordhoff, Charles

It was called "O le asi pulu tangata," the asi tree the refuge of men.

From Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago And Long Before by Turner, George

To be sick in common speech was mai, but in polite language it was ngasengase, faatafa, pulu pulusi.

From The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Vol. II by Frazer, James George, Sir