20kWEB: Origin of the word Daw. Etymology of the word Daw. Etymology Dictionary.

DAW, a jackdaw, bird of the crow family. (E.) In Skelton, Ware the Hawk, l. 327. In l. 322 he uses the compound daw-cock. The compound ca-daw, i.e. caw-daw, occurs in the Prompt. Parv. p. 57; on which see Way's Note. May be claimed as an E. word, being certainly of O. Low G. origin. β. The word is best traced by Schmeller, in his Bavarian Dict. col. 494. He says that the Vocabularius Theutonicus of 1482 gives the forms dach and dula; the latter of these answers to G. dohle, a jackdaw, and is a dimin. form, for an older dahala, dimin. of daha. This daha is the O. Low G. form answering to O.H.G. táha, M.H.G. táhe, a daw; whence O.H.G. tahele (for tahala), the dimin. form, later turned into dahele, and now spelt dohle. γ. The word, like chough, is doubtless imitative; Schmeller gives dah dah as a cry used by hunters. By the mere change of one letter, we have the imitative E. word caw; and by uniting these words we have caw-daw, as above. Cf. also Ital. taccola or taccca, 'a railing, chiding, or scolding;... also a chough, a rook, a jack-dawe;' Florio. This Ital. word is plainly derived from Old High German. Der. jack-daw.

Etymology Dictionary

Origin of the word DAW. Etymology of the word DAW.