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Waw

//wɔː// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A wave. obsolete

    "[…] nigh it drawes All passengers, that none from it can shift: For whiles they fly that Gulfes deuouring iawes, They on this rock are rent, and sunck in helplesse wawes."

  2. 2
    A wall. Northern-England, Scotland, dialectal

    "She hath been at London to call a strea a straw, and a waw a wall."

  3. 3
    The twenty-seventh letter of the Arabic alphabet: و.
  4. 4
    Initialism of write after write, a kind of data hazard. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
  5. 5
    the 6th letter of the Hebrew alphabet wordnet
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    Alternative spelling of vav. alt-of, alternative

    "Rather, the waws of both fragments are demonstrably similar. What Cryer and Becking fail to note is that the style of waw used in Fragment B is also used in Fragment A."

Verb
  1. 1
    To stir; move; wave. obsolete, transitive

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English wawen, waȝien, from Old English wagian (“to move, shake, swing, totter”), from Proto-West Germanic *wagōn, from Proto-Germanic *wagōną (“to move”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to drag, carry”). Cognate with German wagen (“to venture, dare, risk”), Dutch wagen (“to venture, dare, also to move, stir”), Swedish våga (“to dare”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English wawe, waȝe, waghe, from Old English wǣg (“motion, water, wave, billow, flood, sea”), from Proto-West Germanic *wāg, from Proto-Germanic *wēgaz (“wave, storm”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to drag, carry”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian waag (“wave”), West Frisian weach (“wave”), Dutch waag (“wave”), German Woge, Wooge (“wave”), Danish vove, våg (“wave”), Faroese vágur (“bay”), Icelandic vogur (“bay”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish våg (“wave”), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌲𐍃 (wēgs, “wave”), French vague (“wave”) (from Old Norse vágr (“ocean, sea; wave”)). See also wave.

Etymology 3

From Middle English wawe, wowe, waugh, wough, from Old English wāh, wāg (“a wall, partition”), from Proto-Germanic *waigaz (“wall”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to bend, twist”). Cognate with Scots wauch, vauch, Saterland Frisian Wooge (“indoor wall, partition”).

Etymology 4

From Arabic وَاو (wāw). Doublet of wau.

See also for "waw"

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