\u201cIt was a little bit sort of mocking a person for putting that much effort into their appearance, but at the same time, you couldn\u2019t be a skux unless you also looked good,\u201d Ms. Chapman said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Ms. Chapman wrote that the term most likely came into use around 1997, when two Samoan teenage boys living in Wellington saw an Italian ad in which a good-looking man<\/a> used the term \u201cScacco matto\u201d (checkmate). The boys wondered if there was a Samoan word to describe a handsome man who would use a line similar to the Italian actor. They eventually settled on \u201cSikaki\u201d \u2014 which, coincidentally, means \u201cstudy,\u201d Ms. Chapman wrote.<\/p>\n Over time, the word evolved, and \u201cskux\u201d entered New Zealanders\u2019 lexicon. (Different spellings are permissible. It is sometimes written as \u201cskuxx.\u201d)<\/p>\n The Samoan teenagers who coined the phrase went on to play international rugby. Ms. Chapman wrote that one of them, the All Blacks player Ma\u2019a Nonu, was given the moniker Skux.<\/p>\n The word\u2019s definition has since evolved and now describes someone who knows \u201cthey\u2019re cool, but is even cooler than that\u201d and can be used for people of all ages, genders and backgrounds, Ms. Chapman said. <\/p>\n Slang terms are often associated with a particular demographic, and so their use signals belonging to that group, said Arianna Berardi-Wiltshire, a linguistics lecturer at Massey University in New Zealand. But it is common for their definitions to become more generalized as they spread through the population, she added.<\/p>\n The Canadian rapper Drake used the term during his concert in Auckland in 2015<\/a>, and \u201cskux\u201d gained more international attention when it featured in the 2016 film \u201cHunt for the Wilderpeople,\u201d written and directed by Taika Waititi, a New Zealand native.<\/p>\n In one scene, as the police close in on the gruff Uncle Hec (Mr. Neill) and the rebel Ricky (Julian Dennison), the younger New Zealander yells, \u201cI didn\u2019t choose the skux life, the skux life chose me,\u201d before crashing his car into a corrugated iron fence and yelling \u201cfreedom.\u201d The line made its way onto shirts and stickers<\/a>.<\/p>\n After the news of Mr. Neill\u2019s death, Mr. Dennison said in a post on social media that he would hold onto the lifetime of memories from making the film and thanked his co-star for being the \u201cskuxxest.\u201d The term was used in many other tributes to Mr. Neill. Skux also made its way into Mr. Neill\u2019s obituary on the Australian satirical website<\/a> The Betoota Advocate, which wrote that he had led \u201cthe skux life.\u201d<\/p>\n Mark Broatch, the author of \u201c100 Words That Make Us Kiwi,\u201d said a lot of New Zealand English is influenced by Australia, Britain, the United States, and Maori \u2014 the Indigenous language.<\/p>\n \u201cI doubt any other form of English uses so much of the language of its first people. There has also been some Pasifika borrowing, given our place and role in the Pacific,\u201d he said, referring to people from the Pacific islands who now call New Zealand home.<\/p>\n Mr. Broatch said one peculiarity of New Zealand slang was the addition of \u201cy\u201d or \u201cie\u201d to words \u2014 seen in common local words: bikkie (biscuit), littlies (young children), mozzie (mosquito) and wettie (wet suit). A babycino \u2014 or kid-friendly cafe drink \u2014 in New Zealand is known as a \u201cfluffy.\u201d<\/p>\n Although skux has faded from New Zealand\u2019s lexicon, Mr. Neill\u2019s death this week saw a resurgence of the term. And Ms. Chapman said no one would dispute its application to Mr. Neill.<\/p>\n \u201cThe original skuxes combined stereotypical masculine traits (rugby, power) with a gentler presentation (eye makeup, hair straightening, simply caring at all),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cNeill was a classic Kiwi bloke but with a beautifully gentle way of presenting himself,\u201d she said, \u201cespecially in his love of land and animals. Very skux.\u201d<\/p>\n
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