dui, n.title (for village chief or family head).
dui
a
a
a
a
er
a
a
kuk
a
oba
diakn.poss.1s
diamn.poss.2s
dialn.poss.3s
a
dui
el
a
er
ng
el
a
dimamn.poss.1pe
diadn.poss.1pi
dimiun.poss.2p
dirirn.poss.3p
meluchel er a duiexpr.hold title.
Examples:
> He just likes to chew (betel nut) and doesn't do any work.
> He's doing a very wrong thing./He doesn't know what he's doing. [strong insult]
> I stopped my child from smoking cigarettes.
> Droteo hardly ever studies.
> Why don't you sit down (lit., are you standing up because you don't have a bend in your legs)?
Proverbs:
> An ukall tree won't become a titimel tree.
i.e., a child will resemble its father; human nature will not change. The ukall, a lumber tree, resembles the titimel, a fruit bearing tree, at least to the extent that both are trees and become quite large. Both have assets but are quite different. The idiom is applied in the sense that a child resembles its father and will become what its father was. It may also be used to mean "human nature can't be changed."
> You're like the bisech plant in the backyard which has no purpose.
A person who isn't trusted so he/she is not needed.
> Like Kerosene, poling his canoe with no obvious destination
Under the German administrator Winkler before World War I, a Palauan named Ngirakerisil (Mr. Kerosene) was employed as a canoe operator. Daily he would take the tireless administrator to a different part of Palau to inspect the various economic programs (largely coconut planting) instituted by the now legendary Winkler. The operator, least of all, could predict where they would be going next. The idiom is applied to any aimless person or action; indecision; a changeable person.
> Title pride.
A title (dui, also "coconut leaf," which is sometimes used as the receptacle for a title pending the selection of a successor) is to be worn in humility, but a person who has just received a new title may sometimes be oppressively haughty or prideful.
> It's like the foam of the sea, which forms unexpectedly and then disappears.
It's a matter that comes up for lengthy discussions and then is dropped without resolution or effect. Some things, like sea foam, drift on without settlement. Endless discussion without reaching agreement.
More Examples:
> It's not very hard.
> You said she's not a Palauan?
> No one likes me.
> English
> I kinda dont like women with tattoos.

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