Haole

A Hawaiian name for a white person, someone from the mainland who moved to Hawaii, or something not culturally or natively Hawaiian. It may or may not be derogatory, depending on usage and…venom?

It’s pronounced “howl-lay” or “who-lay.”

Why I Looked It Up

Years ago in an episode of a prime-time soap set in Hawaii called North Shore, one character calls another a haole. Someone else (a young Jason Momoa, incidentally) then says (to the speaker):

Dude, you’re from Santa Monica.

I’ve also been watching the 2018 reboot of Magnum PI, and it’s been used on that show a couple of times.

When I was in the Navy, my roommate was from Hawaii. I vaguely remember him using the word. He often spoke in Hawaiian pidgin slang (though I don’t think he was a native either).