palagin.adj.

1977 A. Wendt in B. Manhire N. Z. Listener Short Stories 72 ‘Thank you,’ said the [Samoan] man... ‘She's jake,’ called the palagi.

1979 A. Wendt Leaves of Banyan Tree ii. 161 Because he is a government worker with the white shirt and shorts and the long socks and shoes, just like a palagi, most of the Sapepe people..are very impressed.

1992 World (BBC) Apr. 70/1 Samoan journalists and palagi sat in air-conditioned corners scoffing hamburgers and Vailima beer... [Note] Palagi: the Polynesian [sic] for a white man or woman, a European, a person from the horizon. ‘Pa’ is an explosion, a burst of noise or light, ‘lagi’ the sky or horizon, hence palagi, ‘sky-burster’.

2002 Dominion Post (Wellington, N.Z.) 9 Oct. b7 There's a label in Samoa for him and his peers which means potato. ‘I'm brown on the outside but white on the inside. It's a huge insult for New Zealand-born Samoans, it denotes that you are just a brown pakeha or palagi.’

1977 A. Wendt in B. Manhire N.Z. Listener Short Stories 71 That palagi attendant called, ‘Do you want to go up?’ ‘Yes’, the [Samoan] man replied in English.

1984 Metro (Auckland) Mar. 16/2 The dunny doors were marked in Samoan and this fact caused some distress to the glittering palagi guests.

1994 Skin & Ink Aug. 61/2 When I was in Samoa, my friends there tried to convince me to get a pe'a because they said it would show up better on my light palagi (white man's) skin.