English

saw

/sɔː/
Such a tool with a toothed blade.

    Etymology graph

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    • derived
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    • meaning component
    • sound component
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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    The noun from Middle English sawe, sawgh, from Old English saga, sagu (“saw”), from Proto-West Germanic *sagu, from Proto-Germanic *sagô, *sagō (“saw”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).

    Cognate with West Frisian seage (“saw”), Dutch zaag (“saw”), German Säge (“saw”), Danish sav (“saw”), Faroese, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk sag (“saw”), Swedish såg (“saw”), Icelandic sög (“saw”), and through Indo-European, with Latin secō (“cut”) and Italian sega (“saw”).

    The verb from Middle English sawen, from the noun above.

    Etymology 2

    From Middle English sawe, from Old English sagu, saga (“story, tale, saying, statement, report, narrative, tradition”), from Proto-West Germanic *sagā, from Proto-Germanic *sagō, *sagǭ (“saying, story”), from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷe-, *skʷē-, from *sekʷ- (“to say”).

    Cognate with Dutch sage (“saga”), German Sage (“legend, saga, tale, fable”), Danish sagn (“legend”), Norwegian soga (“story”), Icelandic saga (“story, tale, history”). More at saga, say. Doublet of saga.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishsawe
      • inheritedOld Englishsaga
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*sagu
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*sagō
            • derivedProto-Indo-European*sekʷe-
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*sagā
    • rootProto-Indo-European*sek- “to cut”
    • rootProto-Indo-European*sekʷ- “to follow”

    Related: English saga (doublet), West Frisian seage, Dutch zaag, German Säge, Danish sav, fo,nb,nn sag, Swedish såg, Icelandic sög, Latin secō, Italian sega, Dutch sage, German Sage, Danish sagn, Norwegian soga, Icelandic saga

    Sources