gawe

Javanese

Romanization

gawe

Nonstandard spelling of gawé. Romanization of ꦒꦮꦺ

Walloon

Etymology

Inherited from Old French goe~joe (“cheek”), from Vulgar Latin *gauta. Compare French joue.

The etymological sense survives in the expression fé aler s' gawe (“to move one's mouth”) and the derivatives gawî (“to devour”)~djawyî (“to chat”) and badjawe~badjowe (“jowl”, and various figurative senses). The dialectal variation between conservative /ɡ/ and palatalized /d͡ʒ/ reflects the fact that Wallonia straddles the Joret line.

Noun

gawe f

Jew's harp

References

Haust, Jean. 1923. Étymologies wallonnes et françaises. Liège: Vaillant-Carmanne. Page 78.
Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “*gaba”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 4: G H I, page 5