Word Journal

noun • a boat that has purposely sailed away, for love, adventure, or suicide

tagavaka is a word from the tokelauan lanugauge. this article from gentlemen’s quarterly magazine explains:

Some-times boats are blown off course; there’s even a Tokelauan word for this: lelea. It’s theorized that the very existence of people on the island—it has been inhabited for a thousand years—is because a Polynesian canoe drifted off course. But there is also another, more complicated Tokelauan word: tagavaka. This applies to boats that have purposely sailed away—for love, adventure, or suicide. These days, Tokelauans commit suicide by driving into the open ocean until the gas runs out.

(Source: ragbag)

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    explains: Some-times boats are blown off course; there’s even a Tokelauan word for this: lelea. It’s theorized that the...

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