saw

英文词源

saw

saw: Not counting the past tense of see, English has two words saw. The one meaning ‘toothed cutting tool’ [OE] comes from a prehistoric Germanic *sagō, a close relative of which produced German säge ‘saw’. This in turn was descended from an Indo-European base *sak-, *sek- ‘cut’, which also lies behind English section, segment, sickle, etc. The now seldom heard saw ‘saying, adage’ [OE] comes from a different prehistoric Germanic *sagō, which was derived from the verb *sagjan ‘say’ (ancestor of English say) and also produced Old Norse saga ‘narrative’ (source of English saga [18]).
=> section, segment, sickle; saga, say

saw (n.1)

toothed cutting tool, Old English sagu, from Proto-Germanic *sago "a cutting tool" (cognates: Old English seax "knife," Old Norse sög, Norwegian sag, Danish sav, Swedish såg, Middle Dutch saghe, Dutch zaag, Old High German saga, German Säge "saw"), from PIE root *sek- "to cut" (cognates: Latin secare "to cut," Russian sech' "to cut;" see section (n.)).

saw (n.2)

"proverb, saying, maxim," Old English sagu "saying, discourse, speech, study, tradition, tale," from Proto-Germanic *saga-, *sagon- (cognates: Middle Low German, Middle Dutch sage, zage, German Sage "legend, fable, saga, myth, tradition," Old Norse saga "story, tale, saga"), from PIE root *sek(w)- "to say, utter" (see say (v.)).

saw (v.)

"cut with a saw," c. 1200, sauen, saghen, from saw (n.1). Strong conjugation began by c. 1400 on model of draw, etc. Related: Sawed; sawing. Sawed-off "short, cut short" is attested 1887 of persons, 1898 of shotguns.

saw (v.)

past tense of see; from Old English plural sawon.