St. Chad Piianaia, a Hawaiian educated in England, said the word haole implies thief or robber (from "hao", thief, and "le", lazy). In 1944 Hawaiian scholar Charles W. Kenn wrote, "In the primary and esoteric meaning, haole indicates a race that has no relation to one's own; an outsider, one who does not conform to the mores of the group; one that is void of the life element because of inattention to natural laws which make for the goodness in man. In its secondary meaning, haole ... implies a thief, a robber, one not to be trusted... During the course of time, meanings of words change, and today, in a very general way, haole does not necessarily connote a negative thought... The word has come to refer to one of Nordic descent, whether born in Hawaii or elsewhere."