Etymology

paw

P3A1W4

Today it means: The soft foot of a mammal or other animal, generally a quadruped, that has claws or nails; comparable to a human hand or foot. Full definition →

Middle English pawe ← Old French poue ← Vulgar Latin *pauta
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paw · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*putōną
  2. Frankish · derived from*pōtōn“to put, stick, plant”
  3. Frankish · derived from*pōta
  4. Vulgar Latin · derived from*pauta
  5. Old French · derived frompoue
  6. Middle English · inherited frompawe
  7. English todaypaw

From Middle English pawe, from Old French poue, poe, from Vulgar Latin *pauta. Further origin unknown, perhaps from Frankish *pōta, from Frankish *pōtōn (“to put, stick, plant”), from Proto-Germanic *putōną, whence also Old English potian (“to push”), pȳtan (“to put out, poke out”). See more at put. Doublet of pote, put, and putt. Cognate with Dutch poot, poten (“to plant”), Low German Pote, German Pfote, Icelandic pota (“to stick”).

paw · noun2

The word probably has an origin in baby talk. See pa.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*putōną all →

putputtpotetoput

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.