Kahuna
The Hawaiian word for an expert or priest, whose English afterlife in surf slang and New Age Huna has little to do with Hawaiian practice.
Also: kahuna lapaʻau, kahuna nui, huna
Kahuna in Hawaiian means an expert in a field. There were kahuna of many kinds: priests, canoe builders, navigators, healers called kahuna lapaʻau, who used plants and prayer, and kahuna of agriculture and fishing. They kept to the kapu, the rules of the old order, and were trained within families. Missionaries in the nineteenth century linked the word with sorcery, and the Hawaiian Kingdom's laws and later American rule curtailed their roles. In the twentieth century the writer Max Freedom Long invented a system called Huna, said to be Hawaiian, which Hawaiian scholars regard as unconnected. In English, a big kahuna now means an important person. Traditional healers and cultural practitioners are active in Hawaii today.