haw

Meanings

Interjection

• An imitation of laughter, often used to express scorn or disbelief. Often doubled or tripled (haw haw or haw haw haw).
• An intermission or hesitation of speech, with a sound somewhat like "haw"; the sound so made.
• An instruction for a horse or other animal to turn towards the driver, typically left (See gee).

Verb

• To stop, in speaking, with a sound like haw; to speak with interruption and hesitation.
• To turn towards the driver, typically to the left.
• To cause (an animal) to turn left.

Noun

• Fruit of the hawthorn.
• A hedge.
• The third eyelid, or nictitating membrane.
• A disease of the nictitating membrane.

Origin

• Imitative
• From Middle English hawe, from Old English haga ("enclosure, hedge"), from Proto-Germanic *hagô (compare West Frisian haach, Dutch haag, German Hag ("hedged farmland"), Norwegian Bokmål hage ("garden")), from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰom (compare Welsh cae ("hedge"), Latin caulae ("sheepfold, enclosure"), cohum, Russian кош ("tent"), коша́ра, Sanskrit कक्ष ("curtain wall")), from *kagʰ- 'to catch, grasp' (compare Welsh cau ("to clasp"), Oscan kahad ("may he seize"), Albanian kam, ke).
• Unknown.
• Uncertain.