Names of houses

More names are applied to houses than the types described. This is due to the Samoan usage of attaching qualifying words to the noun to describe material, construction, condition, and use in order to save further description. Thus a fale 'ulu is a house made of breadfruit wood, but it conveys no further information to the person unacquainted with Samoan house construction. The Samoan, however, knows that breadfruit is used in important houses; guest houses, and not kitchens or ordinary dwelling houses. Similarly; falcolamea means a house made with olemea wood, hut it is only the fine thatch rafters that are formed of olamea rods. The word used depends upon what particular aspect of the house is being discussed. As confusion is likely to occur from the number of names given in Pratt's dictionary, they are here enumerated with others.

The fale'ulu and faleolamea have been mentioned. A house of any wood that is not breadfruit is a fale vao, which name also conveys the idea that it is not a proper guest house. One thatched with coconut leaves regardless of type is a falelaupola. In the construction of a falema'o, ma'o wood is used. In a falema'a, ma'a (stone) is used; such as, Le Fale-o-le-Fee. For pigeon netting, a stone receptacle is built up in which live pigeons may be kept until the fowler is ready to return home. This is also called a falema'a.

A falefa'aafolau is a house built like an afolau (canoe house), and is thus a long house. This name has been shortened to faleafolan. The term faletele has come to describe the round guest house type. A falesae, according to Pratt, (23, p. 123), is quite a good house made of split sticks. The split sticks, however, are confined to the curved main purlins (fau sasae) used in dwelling houses. A plastered house is a falevali and is modern. A fale fa'alaufao is one in which the sides are closed down with thatch.

Condition: A faleaina is a house that is inhabited, and a faleofei one that has been cleaned and prepared for guests or others. A house strengthened to resist storms (afa) is a faleafa.

Use: The terms faleumu, umu, faleuli, tunoa, and paito are all used for cooking houses. Both faleto'a and faletofa are applied to the house a chief sleeps in. Palefuitui is a talking chief's house in which chiefs gather for discussion. A house in which visitors are housed is faletalimalo.

A rough house near the beach constructed for fishermen while they are page 70away from home is a faleapifangota. A faleseu is a fowler's house for netting pigeons, of which there are usually four, named according to position: falemua, faleva'ai, falematua, palalau, and fa'alele. A fowl house is a falemoa and faleui and maliunga, the latrine.

A faleta is a carpenter's shed, falelalanga, a house used by a number of women to plait fine mats in, and faleta'a, a brothel. (See Pratt, 23, p. 124.)

The term laulautu is applied to the house on the chief's death, and the house where the mourners gather is a faleniu. The falelauasi, a house of sandal wood, is figuratively applied to dead chiefs who are to be buried.

The terms fale'oa and faleoloa (stores), and falepuipui (prison), are of modern usage. Small houses that stand at the back of the main house are termed faleo'o and faletua. Faleo'o now implies the ordinary dwelling house, and faletua, a latrine.

Figuratively, faleupolu applies to the people and particularly the body of talking chiefs who support a high chief; faletolu, falefa, and falelima refer to various unions of villages. There are other usages where fale (house) is used in conjunction with another word in a figurative sense.

Churchill (6) incorrectly maintained that the Tui Manua had the only house with a proper name, Faleula. The guest house of Tuitele of Leone, Tutuila, is named Falesau, and the name has a great historical significance. The family also had the traditional house of Laloifi which was built under a chestnut tree as its name implies, to house one of the Malietoas and his retinue. The guest house of Maunga at Pago Pago is named Ngangamoe, and there are others.