maw

English

WOTD – 8 July 2012    

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /mɔː/, X-SAMPA: /mO:/
• (US) IPA: /mɔ/, X-SAMPA: /mO/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA: /mɑ/, X-SAMPA: /mA/
• Homophones: more (non-rhotic accents)
• Rhymes: -ɔː

Etymology 1

From Middle English mawe, from Old English maga (“stomach, maw”), from Proto-Germanic *magô (“belly, stomach”), from Proto-Indo-European *mak-, *maks- (“bag, bellows, belly”). Cognate with West Frisian mage, Low German mage, Dutch maag (“stomach, belly”), German Magen (“stomach”), Danish mave, Swedish mage (“stomach, belly”), and also with Welsh megin (“bellows”), Russian мошна (mošná, “pocket, bag”), Lithuanian mãkas (“purse”).

Noun

maw (plural maws)

1. (archaic) the stomach, especially of an animal
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book X

     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 ravenous creature.
   • 1818, John Keats, Endymion

     To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw

3. any great, insatiable or perilous opening.

Translations

stomach

• Catalan: estómac (ca) m
• Dutch: pens (nl), maag (nl)
• Finnish: maha (fi)
• Portuguese: estômago (pt), bucho (pt) m

• Russian: брюхо (ru) (brjúxo) n
• Spanish: estómago (es)
• Swedish: mage (sv) c

upper digestive tract

• Finnish: kita (fi)
• Russian: пасть (ru) (pastʹ) f

• Scottish Gaelic: sgròban (gd) m

Etymology 2

By shortening of mother

Noun

maw (plural maws)

1. (dialect, colloquial) Mother.

Anagrams

• awm

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Cornish

Pronunciation

• IPA: /mæʊ/

Noun

maw m

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

Synonyms

• mab

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Mapudungun

Noun

maw (using Unified Alphabet)

1. rain