We walked from the house to get the Sunday paper. At the corner we came upon a Sunday tradition: the Pu’u Wai Canoe Club Huli Huli Chicken. I asked the cook, ‘what makes it Huli Huli?’ ‘Huli means turn’ he said. ‘Huli Huli means turn twice. You know that dance, don’t you?’ I did a little boogie-woogie and got a bemused nod and a grin and an ‘I knew you knew.’
I’m reading a saga of a Hawaiian family now, Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport, and last night came to a part where they were talking about the need for ‘revolution’, for ‘huli’, so I guess as is so often the case, meaning comes from context.