Humuhumunukunukuāpua’a

Look, I know it’s a stretch, talking about a fish, but really I just love the word humuhumunukunukuāpua’a. I like the look of the word, I like to say it out loud, I like that it means ‘trigger fish with a snout like a pig’. Humuhumunukunukuāpua’a (there, I’ve said it again) is Hawaii’s official fish, and its name is one of the longest words in the Hawaiian language. It’s a beautiful looking fish with distinctive colours—all yellow and black and turquoise with highlights of red and blue—that can fade to drabness when it feels threatened or become vivid when it feels safe.