woak

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

Like one, the word oak acquired an intrusive initial /w/ in some dialects beginning already in the 1400s with Middle English wocke (oak).[1]

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

woak (plural woaks)

  1. (England, dialectal, possibly obsolete) An oak.
    • 1890, Sydney Savory Buckman, John Darke's Sojourn, section XIV:
      When I'd a-hung un up in th' woak tree []
    • 1879, William Barnes, Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, section 78:
      As we wer catchèn vrom our laps / Below a woak our bits an' draps []

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Christopher Upward, George Davidson, The History of English Spelling (2011), section "O"

Anagrams

[edit]

Saterland Frisian

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

Compare Low German waak; German wach.

Adjective

[edit]

woak

  1. awake
[edit]