FromMiddle Englishmawe,maghe,maȝe, fromOld Englishmaga(“stomach; maw”), fromProto-West Germanic*magō, fromProto-Germanic*magô(“belly; stomach”), fromProto-Indo-European*mak-,*maks-(“bag, bellows, belly”).
Cognates
Cognate withWest Frisianmage,Dutchmaag(“stomach; belly”),German Low GermanMaag,GermanMagen(“stomach”),Danishmave,Norwegianmage(“stomach”),Swedishmage(“stomach; belly”), and also withWelshmegin(“bellows”), archaicRussianмошна́(mošná,“pocket, bag”),Lithuanianmãkas(“purse”),Finnishmaha(“stomach”),Estonianmagu(“stomach”).
maw (pluralmaws)
- (archaic) Thestomach, especially of an animal.
1667,John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, inParadise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […];[a]nd by Robert Boulter […];[a]nd Matthias Walker, […],→OCLC; republished asParadise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […],1873,→OCLC:So Death shall be deceav'd his glut, and with us two / Be forc'd to satisfie his Rav'nousMaw.
- The upperdigestive tract (where food enters the body), especially themouth andjaws of a fearsome andravenous creature; craw.
1851 November 14,Herman Melville, chapter 9, inMoby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers; London:Richard Bentley,→OCLC:“I saw the openingmaw of hell, With endless pains and sorrows there; Which none but they that feel can tell— Oh, I was plunging to despair.
- (slang, derogatory) Themouth.
- Synonyms:trap,yap
Shut yourmaw!
- Any large,insatiable orperilousopening.
1981,William Irwin Thompson,The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page23:Adam requires a touch of feminine lace and a whisper of diaphanous silk, not a direct vision of the gapingmaw of the human vulva.
2011 October 11, “Jumping Jack Flash (Live 1973)” (track 14), inBrussels Affair (Live 1973)[1], performed byThe Rolling Stones:One two! I was born in a cross-fire hurricane. And I howled at themaw in the drivin' rain. But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas. But it's all right. I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash. It's a gas, gas, gas.
- Appetite; inclination.
1607 (first performance),Francis Beaumont, “The Knight of the Burning Pestle”, inComedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and forHumphrey Moseley […], published1679,→OCLC, Act I, scene i:Unless you had moremaw to do me good.
- Theswim bladder of afish, especially when used as food inChinese cuisine.
1998, Charles Gordon Sinclair,International Dictionary of Food and Cooking, Taylor & Francis,→ISBN, page203:fish maw: The buoyancy bladder of a fish similar in appearance to the mammalian lung. Themaw of the conger pike is used in Chinese cooking and is usually sold in dried form which needs reconstituting for about 3 hours and treating with […]
2009 April 28, Teresa M. Chen,A Tradition of Soup: Flavors from China's Pearl River Delta, North Atlantic Books,→ISBN, page70:Fish maw is the commercial term for the dried swim bladders of large fish like sturgeon. Fishmaw has no fishy taste and absorbs the flavors of other ingredients.
201008, Eddie Dowd,Traditional Chinese Medicine and Fertility Treatment, Paragon Publishing,→ISBN, page150:Fishmaw (swim bladder) is easily obtainable from your local fishmonger[.]
2020 May 12, K. Gopakumar, Balagopal Gopakumar,Health Foods from Ocean Animals, CRC Press,→ISBN, page172:[...] fishmaw is light, white in color, and has a spongy texture. Dried fishmaw is tasteless which makes it a good complementary addition to many dishes since it can absorb the flavors of other ingredients when it is cooked with other food […]
any great, insatiable or perilous opening
By shortening ofmother
maw (pluralmaws)
- (dialect, colloquial) Mother.
Seemew(“a gull”),Norwegianmåke(“a gull”)
maw (pluralmaws)
- Agull.
maw
- butterfly
maw m (pluralmebyon)
- boy
- Me a wrug deskyKernowak termyn me vemaw.
- I learnt Cornish when I was a boy.
FromProto-Khasian*smaːw, fromProto-Austroasiatic*t2mɔʔ(“stone”). Cognate withVietnameseđá,Monတၟံ,Nyah Kurฮมอ,Khmerថ្ម(thmɑɑ),Eastern Brutamaw,Bahnartơmo,Parauksimaw.[1]
maw m
- rock,stone
- ^Shorto, Harry (2006) Sidwell, Paul, Doug Cooper and Christian Bauer, editors,A Mon-Khmer Comparative Dictionary, Canberra: Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics,→ISBN
- Singh, U Nissor (1906)Khasi-English dictionary[2], Shillong: Eastern Bengal and Assam Secretariat Press, page130. Searchable online atSEAlang.net.
maw(Unified spelling)
- rain
maw
- Alternative form ofmawe(“stomach”)
FromProto-Cushitic*ma?-/*miʔ-(to be wet) fromProto-Afroasiatic*maʔ-. CompareEgyptianmw,Aasaxmaʔa, alsoDahalomaʔa;Hebrewמים(máyim),
Classical Syriacܡܝܐ(mayyā) andSomalimaanyo andSomalima'wi.
maw m (plural mawooyin m)
- watercontainer,water-jar
- Puglielli, Annarita, Mansuur, Cabdalla Cumar (2012) “ma'wi”, inQaamuuska Af-Soomaliga[3], Rome:RomaTrE-Press,→ISBN, page613
