Etymology Blog

PURE OR BEAUTIFUL FLOWER

7/15/2020

Punani, an often-vulgar slang word for "vagina", originated from the 1980s Jamaican patois term punanny and was popularized through reggae and use on Da Ali G Show. Some think that the term comes from Hawaiian puanani, meaning "beautiful flower" (from pua, "blossom", and nani, "lovely"), but geographically speaking that's hard to buy. It's also been proposed is that it's from poon, another nickname for "vagina" and a shortening of poontang, which is a Haitian Creole corruption of French putain, "prostitute". Putain, through Old French pute, traces to Latin putus, meaning "pure" (this may have been influenced by putidus, "stinking"; also the source of Spanish puta). Finally, that would be from Proto-Indo-European pewh, which meant "to purify". It's often hard to find etymologies for such colloquial words, but both options are fascinating!

8 Comments

Alistair

10/2/2022 09:19:57 am

There's an alternate claim floating around on teh interwebz that this word is actually of Indian origin, and was introduced to Jamaica in the 1930s to 1950s by Indian migrant workers. That claim states that 'punani' is a term used for the female vagina in The Kama Sutra.

While this claim seems plausible, I'd need someone who's read Kama in Hindi to verify. I'm sure you can find a native Hindi speaker in your network to confirm or deny this.

My interest in this comes because I'm from the Caribbean, and old enough to have been a teenager when dancehall music first became popular in the region. It was a/ quite clear at the time that the term was already established in the Jamaican vernacular at the very outset of dancehall's popularity; and b/ it seemed quite feasibly of Indian origin at the time.

Jeff

3/30/2023 11:24:13 am

I am fairly sure that Kama Sutra is not written in Hindi, but rather in Sanscrit. Very old book, you know.

I do not claim to be an expert on this writing, but in my casual acquaintance with it the only word I have heard of being used for vagina is "yoni," which translates most closely (as I understand it) to "sacred space." Rather poetical, I think.

It is understandable why people would imagine it is derived from Hawaiian/Polynesian, as the word has a sound that evokes Polynesian pronunciation, but I would need to see some historical facts to support any conclusion.

PenPil

9/12/2024 08:58:26 pm

Could it not have descended from pudenda, meaning vulva? Sadly descended from latin pudor/shame.

Hawaiian

10/21/2022 11:16:40 pm

Punani is not a translation from Jamaica punanny in anyway it’s the word flower in Hawaiian you clearly don’t know what your writing about

Goddess

1/11/2023 10:10:48 am

Please use punctuation so folks can understand what you mean?
Thx.

Goddess

1/11/2023 10:13:20 am

Oh...
and it's YOU'RE, not "your"

Been there

2/23/2023 07:35:18 am

Well I am pretty sure the term as it is in the vernacular did not come from the similar sounding Hawaiian phrase for soft flower (or whatever it is there). I have read elsewhere that this belief is mistaken.

For my part, as a Jamaican, I heard this word in dialect and music growing up. It became popular outside of Jamaica because of the spread of dancehall/reggae music to the UK, USA and worldwide. You would hear this music everywhere and Americans became acquainted with it. I always wondered about the origin of it myself, and the Indian origin makes the most sense, as there was a large influx of Indians workers into Jamaica (including my great grandmother) in the early 1900s. I would venture there was 0 traffic and no connection between Hawaii and Jamaica at the time this word came into use in Jamaica. Conversely, the Indian presence was large and early.

Lola O'Brien

1/13/2023 02:36:46 am

"Geographically speaking that's hard to buy." Cultural exchange between the UK and Hawaii has happened since 1778 despite the geographical distance between the two. https://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/hawaii.htm

There's a reason that the Union Jack appears as part of the Hawaiian flag - the royals of Hawaii were very close with the British empire.

Pretty much everyone in Hawaii knows what punani means...and Hawaiians born before the 1980s and Ali G definitely know what it means.

PURE OR BEAUTIFUL FLOWER

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