daily-reo

Āmaimai means: Anxiety, tension.

Āmaimai is a kupu hou for me. It looks like it could be an example of reduplication as ‘āmai’ means ‘giddy, dizzy’.

While Te Aka references it as a noun or modifier, Paekupu confirms that it’s also usable as a stative verb as in:

• Ka āmaimai katoa ahau i te taenga o taku whānau ki te mātakitaki i a mātou (I was completely anxious when my family arrived to watch us)

This example sentences uses the word ‘katoa’ which has a number of meanings, but its most common is following a noun to mean all instances of the thing specified as in “ngā tāngata katoa” (all the people). Unlike many of the other kupu which modify the base of a phrase in this way, ‘katoa’ is not a particle, it’s a base itself as the noun meaning ‘all’ or ‘everything’. It can be used as a standalone base as in “te katoa o te wā’ (the whole of time).

It can also be used to follow a verb, in which case it means ‘all’ of the subject of the verb phrase:

• Kua tae katoa mai rātou (They have all arrived)

Some other uses of the kupu ‘katoa’ include:

• Indicating that something is all-encompassing, all-consuming or all-conquering.
• Meaning “completely”, “all”, “totally” as in the first example sentence.
• Meaning “very, utterly or serious” as an intensifier as in “I whakatakariri katou mātou i ana teka” (We were utterly outraged by his lies/lying)
• In comparisons to indicate which has the most of the thing being discussed as in “Ko Waikato te awa roa katoa o Aotearoa” (Waikato is the longest river in New Zealand)