Just like in the Hawaiian language, the Marshallese word for love — iokwe or yokwe — is also a greeting and can mean hello and goodbye.

Look it up.

University of Hawaii emeritus professor Byron Bender and software application developer Steve Trussel have just unveiled a new Marshallese-English Dictionary Web site.

Bender said he and three colleagues spent 10 years putting the dictionary together using an IBM mainframe computer and computer punch cards before it was published by the University Press of Hawaii in 1976.

The online dictionary took less than a year to compile on a home computer, he said.

Over the years, Bender had been compiling information to eventually put out a second printed edition of the dictionary, but while taking a morning walk last year he bumped into Trussel, a former UH-Manoa graduate student in linguistics, and they decided to put the dictionary online.

“;I really didn't appreciate it until we got into it, how wide open something online can be,”; Bender said. “;You can jump back and forth with all kinds of links.”;

One of the features on the online dictionary gives the meaning of place names in the Marshall Islands and information on the location of places. Trussel hopes to eventually add maps.

Trussel said as a graduate student, he put a Gilbertese-language dictionary online and has worked with other database applications.

The project was a labor of love and neither he nor Bender will be making money off it, he said.

“;It's something I love to do and Dr. Bender likes to do, and we just got together on it and it came out,”; Trussel said.

Bender believes the online resource will be used by linguistics researchers and by the Marshallese people.

Native Marshallese speakers can use it to learn English and young Marshallese students, many of whom now live in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries, can use it to reconnect with their native language, he said.

Internet access in the Marshall Islands is expensive, Bender said. So he and Trussel will eventually transfer the dictionary to a CD-ROM that can be distributed there.

The dictionary is also designed to be interactive. Users are asked to submit corrections and additions so the resource can be updated.

“;The public can contribute to the dictionary,”; Trussel said. “;It's kind of like a beta version. It's changing every day.”;

Searching through the entries reveals a few gaps in the 1976 dictionary. Among the words likely to be added: computer and Internet.