maw

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See also: Maw, MAW, maw-, and mąw-

English

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WOTD – 8 July 2012

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English mawe, maghe, maȝe, from Old English maga (“stomach; maw”), from Proto-West Germanic *magō, from Proto-Germanic *magô (“belly; stomach”), from Proto-Indo-European *mak-, *maks- (“bag, bellows, belly”).

Cognates

Cognate with West Frisian mage, Dutch maag (“stomach; belly”), German Low German Maag, German Magen (“stomach”), Danish mave, Norwegian mage (“stomach”), Swedish mage (“stomach; belly”), and also with Welsh megin (“bellows”), archaic Russian мошна́ (mošná, “pocket, bag”), Lithuanian mãkas (“purse”), Finnish maha (“stomach”), Estonian magu (“stomach”).

Noun

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maw (plural maws)

  1. (archaic) The stomach, especially of an animal.
    • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      So Death shall be deceav'd his glut, and with us two / Be forc'd to satisfie his Rav'nous Maw.
  2. The upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of a fearsome and ravenous creature; craw.
  3. (slang, derogatory) The mouth.
    Synonyms: trap, yap
    Shut your maw!
  4. Any large, insatiable or perilous opening.
    • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 23:
      Adam requires a touch of feminine lace and a whisper of diaphanous silk, not a direct vision of the gaping maw of the human vulva.
    • 2011 October 11, “Jumping Jack Flash (Live 1973)” (track 14), in Brussels Affair (Live 1973)‎[1], performed by The Rolling Stones:
      One two! I was born in a cross-fire hurricane. And I howled at the maw in the drivin' rain. But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas. But it's all right. I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash. It's a gas, gas, gas.
  5. Appetite; inclination.
  6. The swim bladder of a fish, especially when used as food in Chinese cuisine.
    • 1998, Charles Gordon Sinclair, International Dictionary of Food and Cooking, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 203:
      fish maw: The buoyancy bladder of a fish similar in appearance to the mammalian lung. The maw of the conger pike is used in Chinese cooking and is usually sold in dried form which needs reconstituting for about 3 hours and treating with […]
    • 2009 April 28, Teresa M. Chen, A Tradition of Soup: Flavors from China's Pearl River Delta, North Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 70:
      Fish maw is the commercial term for the dried swim bladders of large fish like sturgeon. Fish maw has no fishy taste and absorbs the flavors of other ingredients.
    • 2010 08, Eddie Dowd, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Fertility Treatment, Paragon Publishing, →ISBN, page 150:
      Fish maw (swim bladder) is easily obtainable from your local fishmonger[.]
    • 2020 May 12, K. Gopakumar, Balagopal Gopakumar, Health Foods from Ocean Animals, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 172:
      [...] fish maw is light, white in color, and has a spongy texture. Dried fish maw is tasteless which makes it a good complementary addition to many dishes since it can absorb the flavors of other ingredients when it is cooked with other food […]
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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By shortening of mother

Noun

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maw (plural maws)

  1. (dialect, colloquial) Mother.

Etymology 3

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See mew (“a gull”), Norwegian måke (“a gull”)

Noun

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maw (plural maws)

  1. A gull.

See also

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Anagrams

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Abinomn

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Noun

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maw

  1. butterfly

Cornish

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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maw m (plural mebyon)

  1. boy
    Me a wrug desky Kernowak termyn me ve maw.
    I learnt Cornish when I was a boy.

Synonyms

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Khasi

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Proto-Khasian *smaːw, from Proto-Austroasiatic *t2mɔʔ (“stone”). Cognate with Vietnamese đá, Mon တၟံ, Nyah Kur ฮมอ, Khmer ថ្ម (thmɑɑ), Eastern Bru tamaw, Bahnar tơmo, Parauk simaw.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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maw m

  1. rock, stone

Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ Shorto, Harry (2006) Sidwell, Paul, Doug Cooper and Christian Bauer, editors, A Mon-Khmer Comparative Dictionary, Canberra: Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics, →ISBN
  • Singh, U Nissor (1906) Khasi-English dictionary‎[2], Shillong: Eastern Bengal and Assam Secretariat Press, page 130. Searchable online at SEAlang.net.

Mapudungun

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Noun

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maw (Unified spelling)

  1. rain

Middle English

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Noun

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maw

  1. Alternative form of mawe (“stomach”)

Somali

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Etymology

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From Proto-Cushitic *ma?-/*miʔ- (to be wet) from Proto-Afroasiatic *maʔ-. Compare Egyptian mw, Aasax maʔa, also Dahalo maʔa; Hebrew מים (máyim),
Classical Syriac ܡܝܐ (mayyā) and Somali maanyo and Somali ma'wi.

Noun

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maw m (plural mawooyin m)

  1. water container, water-jar

References

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  • Puglielli, Annarita, Mansuur, Cabdalla Cumar (2012) “ma'wi”, in Qaamuuska Af-Soomaliga‎[3], Rome: RomaTrE-Press, →ISBN, page 613
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