kiyaga

Noun

 * 1) a color or pigment that is pale, pastel, light-colored, cloudy, watery, milky, or misty.
 * 2) circumlocution or euphemism for water or rain

Usage notes

 * Wauja have described kiyaga as the color of the silt that rises in the water when you step through a clear stream. Note that this word ends with the –ga suffix, found in many nouns that refer to liquids.
 * Blue eyes are described as kiyaga.
 * In the story excerpt above, the storyteller Aruta could not simply say Uno takeneu ("Rain fell"), because his daughter-in-law's name is Uno ("Water"). As a matter of respect, a Wauja refrains from uttering the name of his or her daughter-in-law. (The polite way to refer to the spouse of one's son or daughter is "wife/husband of so-and-so" or "mother/father of so-and-so.") That's why, in the example above, the storyteller used the circumlocution Kiyaga takeneu ("pale/watery stuff fell"). Ulawalu and her sister Uhekualu kindly pointed out this substitution in Aruta's telling of the story in 1989.