Kaiwhakahaere means: Manager / boss / administrator (the one who makes things go).
I mentioned the prefix kai- to mean “the person who does the thing” and the prefix whaka- (including whakahaere) in earlier posts, so I’m going to use today’s post as a prompt to investigate something I’ve seen before but haven’t learned to use myself, which is ‘haere’ as a verb modifier. Te Aka notes that haere “indicates gradual change or progressive increase in a state when following a verb.”
So, for example:
- Kua pau ngā moni - The money is all gone.
- Kua pau haere te moni. - The money is getting used up, is running out.
- Kua ora mai anō ōna mātua. - His parents have gotten well again.
- Kua ora haere mai anō ōna mātua - His parents are getting better (but could improve further)
- Kua piki haere te utu o ngā kai - The price of food has slowly risen. (Even though piki by itself means to go up or increase, haere is idiomatically added even if it may seem redundant).
The other use of haere following a verb is detailed in Te Aka as “along, while moving – when used following another verb it indicates action being done while moving.”
So, for example:
- I rapu haere ia i ana kī - He went around looking for his keys.
- E tangi haere mai ana te ope - The group are weeping as they come.
- Hāereere haere, hīkoi haere - To walk around (again, haere is added idiomatically even though hīkoi already means to walk)