gau

See also: Appendix:Variations of "gau"

Translingual

Etymology

Clipping of English Gadaba with u as a placeholder, influenced by Gutob.

Symbol

gau

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Kondekor.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Kondekor terms

English

Etymology 1

Alternative forms

• ghau

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊ
• Homophone: Gow

Noun

gau (plural gaus)

1. (Tibetan Buddhism) A prayer box or small container worn as jewelry and containing an amulet or similar item.

Etymology 2

From either Hokkien 厚 (kāu, “thick”) or Teochew 厚 (gao⁶, “thick”), influenced in spelling by Mandarin Pinyin.

Alternative forms

• gao, kau

Pronunciation

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): [k˭aʊ˨]

Adjective

gau (not comparable)

1. (Singapore, colloquial, of coffee) Strong (used as a modifier after kopi (“coffee”)).

   Kopi Gau ― Strong coffee with sugar and condensed milk

2. (Singapore, colloquial, more generally, less common) Thick; having a strong or overwhelming flavour.
   • 2019 August 24, Yeo Boon Ping, quoting Zachary Tang, “If Zi Char Dishes Were In A Battle Royale, Which Would Come Out Tops?”, in ricemedia.co‎^[3], archived from the original on 12 July 2024:

     But for all the eggs and liao (ingredients) you have, it isn’t gao (strong).

Related terms

• C
• di lo
• gah dai
• kosong
• O
• peng
• po
• siew dai

Etymology 3

Noun

gau

1. Alternative form of jow (“a pre-metric unit of length in India”).

Etymology 4

From German Gau, from Middle High German göu, gou, from Old High German gawi.

Noun

gau (plural gaus or gaue)

1. District, region.

Anagrams

• AGU, Aug, Aug., GUA, UGA, aug

Achang

Achang numbers ^(edit)

←  8	9	10  →
Cardinal: gau

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tə-ŋguʔ.

Pronunciation

• (Myanmar) /ɡɑu˧/
• (Longchuan) [kau³¹]
• (Luxi) [kʰjau⁵¹]
• (Xiandao) [kau³¹]

Numeral

gau

1. nine

Further reading

• Inglis, Douglas; Sampu, Nasaw; Jaseng, Wilai; Jana, Thocha (2005), A preliminary Ngochang–Kachin–English Lexicon‎^[4], Payap University, page 33

Basque

Alternative forms

• gai (Soule, Roncalese)
• gabe (Biscayan)

Etymology

Unknown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡau̯/ [ɡau̯]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -au̯
• Hyphenation: gau

Noun

gau inan

1. night

Declension

Declension of gau (inan V-stem)

	indefinite	singular	plural	proximal plural
absolutive	gau	gaua	gauak	gauok
ergative	gauk	gauak	gauek	gauok
dative	gauri	gauari	gauei	gauoi
genitive	gauren	gauaren	gauen	gauon
comitative	gaurekin	gauarekin	gauekin	gauokin
causative	gaurengatik	gauarengatik	gauengatik	gauongatik
benefactive	gaurentzat	gauarentzat	gauentzat	gauontzat
instrumental	gauez	gauaz	gauez	gauotaz
innesive	gautan	gauean	gauetan	gauotan
locative	gautako	gaueko	gauetako	gauotako
allative	gautara	gauera	gauetara	gauotara
terminative	gautaraino	gaueraino	gauetaraino	gauotaraino
directive	gautarantz	gauerantz	gauetarantz	gauotarantz
destinative	gautarako	gauerako	gauetarako	gauotarako
ablative	gautatik	gauetik	gauetatik	gauotatik
partitive	gaurik	—	—	—
prolative	gautzat	—	—	—

Derived terms

• gabon (“good night”)
• gauenara
• gauerdi
• gauero (“every night”)
• gaur (“today”)

Descendants

• → Gascon: gaüs, gahús, guèhus, guehús, cahús, caüs, gohús

French

Alternative forms

• gaut, go

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡo/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o

Noun

gau m (plural gaux)

1. (slang) louse

Kalo Finnish Romani

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡɑu]

Noun

gau m (nominative plural gaave)

1. village

Further reading

• Kimmo Granqvist (2011), “Eräitä keskeisiä äännevaihteluja”, in Lyhyt Suomen romanikielen kielioppi [Consice grammar of Finnish Romani]‎^[5] (in Finnish), Helsinki: Institute for the Languages of Finland, →ISBN, →ISSN, retrieved 10 February 2022, page 12

Latin

Etymology

Poetic clipping of gaudium. Attributed to Ennius (circa 200 BCE) by the poet Ausonius in his catalogue of monosyllabic Latin words, never attested directly.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɡau̯]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɡaːu̯]

Noun

gau n (indeclinable) (archaic, poetic, hapax legomenon)

1. clipping of gaudium (“joy”)
   • c. 310 CE – c. 395 CE, Ausonius, Technopaegnion 144:

     Ennius ut memorat, repleat te laetificum gau.

     As Ennius says, may gladdening joy fill you.

Declension

Indeclinable noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	gau	gau
genitive	gau	gau
dative	gau	gau
accusative	gau	gau
ablative	gau	gau
vocative	gau	gau

References

• “gau”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “gau”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “gau” in volume 6, part 2, column 1701, line 34 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present

Low German

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden, quick”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Dutch gauw (“quickly”), German jäh (“sudden, abrupt”). More at gay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaʊ̯/

Adjective

gau

1. quick

Niuean

Verb

gau

1. chew

Derived terms

• gagau

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse gauð.

Noun

gau n (definite singular gauet, indefinite plural gau, definite plural gaua)

1. a bark
2. (collective) barking
3. noise

Derived terms

• gaua, gaue (verb)

References

• “gau” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Anagrams

• aug, aug., uga

Saterland Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian gā, from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz. More at gay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɣaːu̯/
• Hyphenation: gau
• Rhymes: -aːu̯

Adverb

gau

1. quickly; swiftly
2. soon; at once

Welsh

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aɨ̯

Etymology 1

From Proto-Celtic *gāwā (“falsehood, lie”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeH₂u- (“to be faulty, at fault, lacking”). Cognate with Cornish gow, Breton gaou; outside of Celtic, compare Latin haud (“scarcely, hardly”), Avestan 𐬔𐬀𐬎 (gau, “to commit a sin; to promote”).

Adjective

gau (feminine singular gau, plural geuon, equative geued, comparative geuach, superlative geuaf)

1. false, fake

   Synonyms: ffals, ffugiol, celwyddog

Derived terms

• euog (“guilty”)
• gau dduw (“false god”)
• geuberllys (“fool's parsley”)
• geudeb (“falsehood”)
• geudy (“toilet, privy”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of gau

radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
gau	au	ngau	unchanged

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Etymology 2

Mutated form of cau (“to close”).

Verb

gau

1. soft mutation of cau

Mutation

Mutated forms of cau

radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
cau	gau	nghau	chau

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “gau”, in Gweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin
• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “gau”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
• Matasović, Ranko (2009), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 154
• Cheung, Johnny (2007), Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 2), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 95

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian gā, from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz.

Adverb

gau

1. quickly

   Synonym: rap

2. soon

Further reading

• “gau (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011