Etymology

maw

M3A1W4

Today it means: The upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of an animal. Full definition →

Middle English mawe ← Old English maga ← Proto-West Germanic *magō
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maw · noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*mak-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*magô“belly; stomach”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*magō
  4. Old English · inherited frommaga“stomach; maw”
  5. Middle English · inherited frommawe
  6. English todaymaw

From Middle English mawe, maghe, maȝe, from Old English maga (“stomach; maw”), from Proto-West Germanic *magō, from Proto-Germanic *magô (“belly; stomach”), from Proto-Indo-European *mak-, *maks- (“bag, bellows, belly”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian mage, Dutch maag (“stomach; belly”), German Low German Maag, German Magen (“stomach”), Danish mave, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish mage (“stomach; belly”), and also with Welsh megin (“bellows”), archaic Russian мошна́ (mošná, “pocket, bag”), Lithuanian mãkas (“purse”), Finnish maha (“stomach”), Estonian magu (“stomach”).

maw · noun2

Variant of ma.

maw · noun3

See mew (“a gull”), Norwegian måke (“a gull”)

Maw · proper noun4

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*makô“mate, relative”
  2. English todayMaw

* As an English surname, from an obsolete derivative of Proto-Germanic *makô (“mate, relative”), comparable to modern match. * Also as an English surname, from archaic mew (“seagull”); compare the surname Mew. * Also as an English surname, from archaic maw (“belly”).

Words from the same roots

Old Englishmaga all →

may

Proto-Germanic*makô all →

match

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.