lawe

See also: lawę, ławe, and ławę

English

Etymology

Perhaps from law because the practice was ordained by law. Few dictionaries comment directly on the etymology of the sense, but several (which also spell the infinitive law) group it with the other verb and noun senses derived from Old English lagu (“law”).

Verb

lawe (third-person singular simple present lawes, present participle lawing, simple past and past participle lawed)

1. (transitive) To cut off the claws and balls of (e.g. a dog's forefeet, to hinder it from hunting).
   • 1808, William Gilpin, Remarks on forest scenery, and other woodland views:

     They were enveloped in forms, and easily evaded ; like a lawed dog, too mutilated to catch their game.

   • 1866, George Richard Jesse, Researches Into the History of the British Dog:

     In the 3 Edw II., at a Court-Leet and Court-Baron held for the manor of Sutton-Cold field, in Warwickshire, when the ancient customs of the Lordship from the time of Athelstan and until the coronation of Henry III. were testified to by the Jury, they certified that they had heard their ancestors say that, when Sutton manor was in the hands of the Kings of England, all the Chase was afforested, and all the dogs within the forest used to be lawed, and the left claw of the foot cut off: and after it came into the hands of the Earl of Warwick they had leave to have and hold dogs of all kind unlawed.

   • 1950, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire:

     The Vicar of Bacford for the same John Miller there for the same Beatrice de Coghull for one dog not lawed.

   • 2011, Edward Rutherfurd, Sarum, →ISBN, page 511:

     Godric rarely entered the forest, and, having already trained Harold to help with driving the sheep, at which the young dog had shown a remarkable talent, he had no wish to have him lawed.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:lawe.

See also

• expediate

Noun

lawe (countable and uncountable, plural lawes)

1. Obsolete spelling of law (“system of regulations etc.”).

Further reading

• “lawe”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• alew, e-law, wale, weal

Hawaiian

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *lawe (“take, lay hold of”), from Proto-Oceanic *lawe (“take hold of”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈla.we/, [ˈlɐ.ʋe]

Noun

lawe

1. bearer

Verb

lawe

1. (transitive) to transport, carry, take, bring

   lawe mai – to bring

   lawe aku – to take away

2. (transitive, figurative) to undertake, to accept
3. (stative) portable
4. (stative) to become

Derived terms

• hailawe (“barter”, verb)
• hoʻolawe (causative/simulative form)
• lalawe (“thrilled”)
• lawelawe (reduplicated form)

Further reading

• lawe in Combined Hawaiian Dictionary, at trussel2.com.

Javanese

Romanization

lawe

1. alternative spelling of lawé, romanization of ꦭꦮꦺ

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English lagu, from Old Norse *lagu, an earlier form of lǫg, the plural of lag (“layer”).

Alternative forms

• lage, lagh, laghe, laȝe, laȝhe, laȝwe, lau, laue, laugh, lauwe, law

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlaɣə/ (Early Middle English)
• IPA^(key): /ˈlau̯(ə)/
• Rhymes: -au̯(ə)

Noun

lawe (plural lawes or (early or West Midland) lawen)

1. An individual law, rule, or regulation:
   1. A snide or pithy axiom or statement of a general truth.
   2. A scientific or natural law; a statement of truth.
   3. A dispensation (one of the periods of Christian history)
2. A group or system of laws; legislation; the law.
   1. Directives or obligations; informal or implicit rules.
   2. Morality, natural law (either instinctual or taught):
   3. A religion or its scriptures, commandments, or practices.
   4. Marriage as a regulating and obligating institution.
   5. (rare) Etiquette, decorum; societally expected behaviour.
3. The practice of law or rules; litigation, governance, or part of it:
   1. The legal profession or those employed in it.
   2. Legality; what is legally (and often seen as morally) right.
   3. A jurisdiction; an area governed by a legal system.
   4. A legal ruling or decision; penalisation or compensation.
4. One's behaviour, customs, or lifestyle:
   1. The usual behaviour of a group of people or things.
   2. The method or way in which something is accomplished.
5. (rare) The state or situation one is in.

Related terms

• brother-in-lawe
• comune lawe
• Dene lawe
• doghter in lawe
• fader in lawe
• laufulnes
• laweday
• laweful
• lawefully
• laweles
• laweliche
• lawely
• lawiere
• moder in lawe
• outlawe
• sone in lawe
• suster-in-lawe

Descendants

• English: law
• Scots: law
• Yola: laas (plural)
• → Middle Cornish: laha
  • Cornish: laha, lagha

References

• “laue, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 19 February 2019.

Etymology 2

Noun

lawe

1. (Cheshire, County Durham, North Riding, Early Scots, Ormulum) alternative form of lowe (“mound”)

Etymology 3

Verb

lawe

1. (Devon) alternative form of laughen

North Frisian

Alternative forms

• lewe (Föhr-Amrum)
• lewwe (Heligoland)
• laawe (Mooring)
• lewi (Sylt)
• lääwe (Wiedingharde)

Etymology

From Old Frisian leva, from Proto-West Germanic *libbjan, from Proto-Germanic *libjaną (“to live”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick”).

Verb

lawe

1. (Goesharde) to live