Etymologically
Log in

daw

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word daw

Pronunciation

daw1 to dawn

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
the Old English translation of Bede
Inherited from
Proto-Germanic *dagāną via Middle English, Old English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *dagāną

Etymology

The verb meaning to dawn is inherited from Middle English dauen,[2][3] inherited from Old English dagian (“to dawn, become day”),[4][5][6][3] inherited from Proto-Germanic *dagāną,[1] formed on the word for day, Old English dæg.[6][4][5] It corresponds to Middle Dutch daghen, Dutch dagen, Low German dagen, Old High German tagēn, German tagen and Old Norse daga.[4][5][3] The OED explains that the Old English change of a to æ did not take place in the verb, so that it became daw while the noun became day, as in draw beside dray and saw beside say.[4] The verb dawn was shortened or back-formed from dauing, from dagung, a noun formed from this verb.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To dawn, with it as subject: in the Old English translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History.[4][6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb was used with day or morning as subject (from about 1200), and figuratively (before 1250, in the Ancrene Riwle).[4] Chaucer used it seven times.[8] From about 1330 it also meant to recover from a swoon or to wake; from Malory (1470–85) on, it could also mean to revive or rouse someone, like adaw;[4][5] these senses died out in the 17th century.[4][5] The main sense lasted until 1837 in the OED's record,[4] and survives in Scots and Northumberland dialect, as in Buchan's ballad line "Drink till the day be dawing".[9][5]

Timeline

  • Old English – to dawn, with it as subject.[4]
  • c. 1200 – with day or morning as subject.[4]
  • c. 1330 – to come round after a swoon, to wake (obsolete by 1691).[4]
  • 1470 – transitive, to revive or rouse (obsolete by 1612).[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (chiefly Scottish) To dawn: They talked by the fire till the day dawed.[3][5][9]
  2. (obsolete, 1330–1691) To recover from a swoon; to wake.[4][5]

daw2 jackdaw

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1425 translation of Higden's Polychronicon
Inherited from
Old English *dawe via Middle English

Etymology

The bird is inherited from Middle English daue, also dawe,[2][10][3] known only from the 15th century, but its form points to an unrecorded inherited from Old English *dāwe.[4][11][7][5] It is related to Old High German tāha and Middle High German tāhe, beside the diminutives tāhele and tāle, the source of German Dohle.[4][11][12][5] Etymonline traces the Old English form to Proto-Germanic *dakhwo, also the source of the Old High German word,[7] and Etymonline, Partridge and Skeat think the name perhaps imitates the bird's cry.[7][13][14] Medieval Latin tacula and Italian taccola are said to be loans from Germanic.[7][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small bird of the crow family, the jackdaw: in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon from before 1475, perhaps first made before 1425,[4][2] where a poor cobbler teaches a dawe to speak.[2] Barnhart dates the word to probably before 1425.[15]

Semantic evolution

From about 1500 the bird's name was applied contemptuously to people: a silly or stupid person (until 1608), a lazy person or sluggard (from the Towneley Plays), and in Scotland an untidy or slovenly woman (before 1598).[4][3] From 1732, in Fielding, it was used with reference to the fable of the jay in borrowed peacock's feathers.[4] Johnson (1755) illustrated it with Iago's line in Othello about wearing his heart upon his sleeve for daws to peck.[16] The compound jackdaw has since become the usual name, and Collins now calls daw archaic, dialect or poetic.[4][17] In Lincolnshire a daw was a silly, chattering person.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 1425 – the jackdaw.[4][15]
  • before 1500 – a lazy person, sluggard.[4]
  • c. 1500 – a silly or stupid person (obsolete by 1608).[4]
  • before 1598 – in Scotland, a slovenly woman.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic, dialect or poetic) A jackdaw.[17][3][4]
  2. (Scottish) A lazy person; a sluggard.[3][4]
  3. (Scottish) An untidy or slovenly woman; a slattern.[3][4]
  4. (obsolete, 1500–1608) A fool or simpleton.[4][3]

Word family

  • dawish

Usage notes

Dictionaries also record an obsolete verb daw, to daunt (1631–64), shortened from adaw,[4][3] and daw, a pale primrose colour of the eyes of some game fowl (1853), for which Irish and Scottish Gaelic dath, colour, has been suggested.[4][3]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  9. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

  • pawn · also from Proto-Germanic
  • tithe · also from Proto-Germanic
  • wharf · also from Proto-Germanic
  • lather · also from Proto-Germanic
  • thane · also from Proto-Germanic
  • stutter · also from Proto-Germanic
  • group · also from Proto-Germanic
  • fathom · also from Proto-Germanic
Cite this entry

“Daw.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/daw. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·