shaw en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /ʃɔ/ (General-American)
- /ʃɔː/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ʃɑ/ (cot-caught-merger)
- (US) audio
Etymology
From Old English sċeaga, scaga. Cognate with Old Norse skógr (“forest, wood”), whence Danish skov (“forest”). Doublet of scaw.
Meanings
-
(dated, dialectal) A thicket; a small wood or grove.
Thenne said sire kay I requyre you lete vs preue this aduenture / I shal not fayle you said sir Gaherys / and soo they rode that tyme tyl a lake / that was that tyme called the peryllous lake / And there they abode vnder the shawe of the wood
1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XXXIX, in Le Morte Darthur, book IX:All this herd sire Lamorak / and on the morne sir lamorak took his hors and rode vnto the forest / and there he mette with two knyghtes houynge vnder the wood shawe
1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XII, in Le Morte Darthur, book IX:The snows are fled away, leaves on the shaws, / And grasses in the mead renew their birth,
1936, Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems, V, lines 1-2:
-
(Scotland) The leaves and tops of vegetables, especially potatoes and turnips.
Up here the hills were brave with the beauty and the heat of it, but the hayfield was still all a crackling dryness and in the potato park beyond the biggings the shaws drooped red and rusty already.
1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 35:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| shaws | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| shawe | alternative, obsolete | lexicographic |
Coordinates
Deriveds
Bradshaw · Shaw · Shaw Bridge · Grimshaw · Robertshaw · fernshaw · Kershaw · Shawbridge
Translations (3)
de Dickicht (small wood) · fr bosquet (small wood) · sv blast (the leaves and tops of vegetables, as of potatoes, turnips, etc.)