Tattoo is a loanword from the Samoan word "tatau", meaning "to strike". The "Oxford English Dictionary" gives the etymology of tattoo as "In 18th c. tattaow, tattow. From Polynesian (Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan, etc.) tatau. In Marquesan, tatu." Before the importation of the Polynesian word, the practice of tattooing had been described in the West as painting, scarring or staining. The etymology of the body modification term is not to be confused with the origins of the word for the military drumbeat or performance — see "military tattoo". In this case, the English word "tattoo" is derived from the Dutch word "taptoe".
Pākehā , the Māori word for "pig", and , one of the Māori words for "flea", and therefore expresses derogatory implications. There is no etymological or linguistic support for this notion—like all Polynesian languages, Māori is generally very conservative in terms of vowels; it would be extremely unusual for "pā-" to derive from "". The word itself may come from the proto-polynesian root "*puaka", known in every Polynesian language (" in Tongan, Uvean, Futunian, Rapa, Marquisian, Niuean, Rarotongan, Tokelauan, and Tuvaluan; it evolved to the later form in Samoan, Tahitian, some Rapa dialects, and Hawaiian); or it might be borrowed or