malaen.
/maˈlɑːeɪ/, U.S. /mɑˈlɑˌeɪ/ In certain Polynesian islands: an open space used either as a meeting-place, or as a ceremonial area, or both, usually in the centre of a village; (also sometimes) a stone-faced platform for religious purposes; (in Tonga also) a burial ground.
ΚΠ
1818 J. Martin Acct. Natives Tonga Islands (ed. 2) 87 Finow sat with several other chiefs in the house on the malái.
1818 J. Martin Acct. Natives Tonga Islands (ed. 2) 87 The malái is a grass-plat, about three acres in extent, with a house on it, and is used for various public purposes;..there are generally four or five of them on each island.
1887 W. B. Churchward My Consulate in Samoa 96 The scene of operations is the Malae or town square, in which all public meetings of whatsoever description are held.
1894 B. Thomson Diversions of Prime Minister 83 They dragged the body inland to a malae [in Tonga].
1902 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 32 86 There stretches inland an irregular series of malae of one, two, or three terraces faced with coral blocks... It is much to be regretted that no one has counted and mapped out these tombs.
1924 R. W. Williamson Social & Polit. Syst. Central Polynesia I. x. 350 This male was, I presume, a malae or open space where meetings..were held, as in Samoa and Tonga.
1924 R. W. Williamson Social & Polit. Syst. Central Polynesia II. xv. 60 In some islands the marae or malae was merely an open space..along with a special wooden house erected in it.
1959 R. Rose South Seas Magic 17 The heads of the wounded were cut off and carried in bloodied baskets on to the malae (village common) in Mulinu'u [in Samoa].
1994 Man 29 411 The malae is an open area in the centre of the village, normally round or elliptical, which is an icon for an identity of place.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1818