haw

See also: Haw, Haw., hAw, and HAw

Translingual

Symbol

haw

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Hawaiian.

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English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɔː/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• IPA^(key): /hɔː/
• Rhymes: -ɔː

Etymology 1

From Middle English ha (interjection). Compare Old Norse há (interjection), Middle Low German ha, hā (interjection), Old High German aha, hei (interjection).

Interjection

haw

1. An imitation of laughter, often used to express scorn or disbelief. Often doubled or tripled (haw haw or haw haw haw).

   You think that song was good? Haw!

   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

     The bitter laugh laughs at that which is not good, it is the ethical laugh. The hollow laugh laughs at that which is not true, it is the intellectual laugh. Not good! Not true! Well well. But the mirthless laugh is the dianoetic laugh, down the snout — Haw! — so.

2. An intermission or hesitation of speech, with a sound somewhat like "haw"; the sound so made.
   • 1720, William Congreve, An Impossible Thing

     Hums or haws.

Usage notes

• (an imitation of laughter): In the US, haw is rare (it was more used in the past), with ha being more common.

Translations

an imitation of laughter

• Dutch: ha (nl)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Finnish: hah (fi)

Verb

haw (third-person singular simple present haws, present participle hawing, simple past and past participle hawed)

1. To stop, in speaking, with a sound like haw; to speak with interruption and hesitation.

Derived terms

• hum and haw, hem and haw

Etymology 2

From Middle English hawe, from Old English haga (“enclosure, hedge”), from Proto-Germanic *hagô (compare West Frisian haach, Dutch haag, German Hag (“hedged farmland”), Norwegian Bokmål hage (“garden”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰom (compare Welsh cae (“hedge”), Latin caulae (“sheepfold, enclosure”), cohum (“strap between plowbeam and yoke”), Russian кош (koš, “tent”), коша́ра (košára, “sheepfold”), Sanskrit कक्ष (kakṣa, “curtain wall”)), from *kagʰ- 'to catch, grasp' (compare Welsh cau (“to clasp”), Oscan kahad (“may he seize”).

Noun

haw (plural haws)

1. Fruit of the hawthorn.

   Synonym: hawthorn berry

2. (historical) A hedge.
3. (obsolete) Something that has little value or importance; a whit or jot.
   • 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act II:

     wele not leaue a man of lawe,
     Nor a paper worth a hawe,
     And make him worſe than a dawe,
     That ſhall ſtand againſt Iacke Strawe.

Derived terms

• apple haw ()
• black haw
• crimson haw ()
• downy haw
• hawthorn
• hog's haw ()
• mayhaw ()
• parsley haw ()
• pear haw (esp. )
• possum haw
• purple haw ()
• red haw
• rose haw
• scarlet haw (esp. )
• Shawnee haw ()
• summer haw ()
• swamp haw ()

Translations

fruit of hawthorn

• Armenian: ալոճ (hy) (aloč)
• Bulgarian: глогина f (glogina)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 山楂 (zh) (shānzhā)

• Dutch: meidoornbes
• Finnish: orapihlajanmarja
• French: cenelle (fr) f
• Georgian: კუნელი (ḳuneli)
• German: Weißdornbeere f, Hagapfel m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: sceachóir m
• Japanese: 山査子 (ja)の (ja)実 (ja) (sanzashi no mi)
• Macedonian: глогинка f (gloginka)
• Middle English: hawe
• Norman: bague f
• Occitan: acina (oc) f
• Welsh: criafolen y moch f

hedge

• Dutch: haag (nl)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: haie (fr) f

Etymology 3

Unknown.

Interjection

haw

1. An instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver, typically left (See gee).

Translations

an instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 嗬 (zh) (hē)

• Czech: čehý (cs)
• Dutch: linksom (nl)
• French: dia (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: hü(st)
• Polish: wiśta (pl)
• Portuguese: ôa, ôô
• Romanian: hăis (ro)
• Slovak: čihí

Verb

haw (third-person singular simple present haws, present participle hawing, simple past and past participle hawed)

1. (of an animal) To turn towards the driver, typically to the left.

   This horse won't haw when I tell him to.

   Antonym: gee

2. To cause (an animal) to turn left.

   You may have to go to the front of the pack and physically haw the lead dog.

   Antonym: gee

Derived terms

• gee haw whimmy diddle
• haw and gee, haw and gee about

 

Etymology 4

Uncertain.

Noun

haw (countable and uncountable, plural haws)

1. (countable, anatomy) The third eyelid, or nictitating membrane.
2. (uncountable) A disease of the nictitating membrane.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “haw”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• WHA, Wah, wah, wha

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Jingpho

Etymology

Borrowed from Burmese ဟော (hau:).

Verb

haw

1. to preach

References

• Kurabe, Keita (2016 December 31) “Phonology of Burmese loanwords in Jinghpaw”, in Kyoto University Linguistic Research‎^[1], volume 35, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 91–128

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Kalasha

Etymology

From Sanskrit हल (hala), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₁ol-. Cognate with Lithuanian žúolis.

Noun

haw

1. plough

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Middle English

Noun

haw

1. Alternative form of hawe

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Scanian

Etymology

From Old Norse haf, from Proto-Germanic *habą.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [hɑ́ː]

Noun

haw n (definite singular haweð, plural haw)

1. sea

Derived terms

• hawblikk
• hawbørw
• hawfroan
• hawmáka
• hawpadda

 

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Zhuang

Pronunciation

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /haɯ˨˦/
• Tone numbers: haw¹
• Hyphenation: haw

Etymology 1

Noun

haw (Sawndip forms 𰁴 or 𫣞 or ⿰土黑, 1957–1982 spelling həɯ)

1. fair; market

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Chinese 虛 (MC xjo).

Adjective

haw (1957–1982 spelling həɯ)

1. weak; feeble