akesi

	akesi
Pronunciation	/ˈa.ke.si/;
Usage	2023: Core (99% ↗︎ )2022: Core (98%)
Book and era	nimi pu
Part of speech	Content word
Codepoint	󱤁 U+F1901

akesi is a core content word relating to reptiles and amphibians.

Etymology

The word akesi is derived from Dutch hagedis, meaning "lizard".^[1]

Semantic space

The semantic space of akesi includes herptiles, that is, reptiles and amphibians. As a modifier, it refers to something related to herptiles and sometimes to scaly or slimy skin.

akesi li moku e pipi　

akesi li moku e pipi.

The frog eats bugs.

akesi linja

akesi linja

snake (lit. 'line-shaped reptile')

pu

Illustration from the Toki Pona Dictionary, captioned akesi li suwi!, reflecting the updated definition of akesi

In the "Official Toki Pona Dictionary" section, the book Toki Pona: The Language of Good defines akesi as:

NOUN non-cute animal; reptile, amphibian

After the publication of the Toki Pona Dictionary, the definition was corrected and this sense removed.^[2]

NOUN reptile, amphibian

ku

For Toki Pona Dictionary, respondents in ma pona pi toki pona translated these English words as akesi:^[3]

reptile⁵, frog³

sitelen pona

Alternative version of akesi

The sitelen pona glyph for akesi (󱤁) represents a reptile with two beady eyes as viewed from above, drawn with a wider, oval-shaped body to distinguish it from pipi.

It is commonly drawn either with three or, alternatively, two strokes (akesi2) through the oval, representing six or four legs, respectively. The six-legged style is the original design from pu (2014),^[4] but only the four-legged style is used in su (2024 onwards).^[5]

sitelen sitelen

The sitelen sitelen word glyph for akesi (akesi) seems to represent a stylized head of a reptilian or non-cute animal, with a slitted eye, a weirdly shaped nose, and an uta radical (uta) for a mouth (also found in the word glyphs for a: a and toki: toki).

The influences for the design of the glyph are unknown. It was made at a time when the now obsolete "non-cute animal" sense of akesi was still very common, which may have influenced its design.

References

↑ "Word Origins". tokipona.org. Archived from the original on 8 August 2002.
↑ Lang, Sonja. (18 July 2021). Toki Pona Dictionary. Illustrated by Vacon Sartirani. Tawhid. ISBN 978-0978292362. p. 13.
↑ Lang, Sonja. (18 July 2021). Toki Pona Dictionary. Illustrated by Vacon Sartirani. Tawhid. ISBN 978-0978292362. p. 199.
↑ Lang, Sonja. (25 May 2014). Toki Pona: The Language of Good. Tawhid. ISBN 978-0978292300. OCLC 921253340. p. 104.
↑ Sonja Lang. (6 January 2024). "Pre-Release Notes on the su Style of sitelen pona". tokipona.org. Archived from the original on 17 January 2024. (Mirrored on 10 February 2024.)