gau

• ghau

• IPA^(key): /ɡaʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊ
• Homophone: Gow

gau (plural gaus)

1. (Tibetan Buddhism) A prayer box or small container worn as jewelry and containing an amulet or similar item.

From either Hokkien 厚 (kāu, “thick”) or Teochew 厚 (gao⁶, “thick”), influenced in spelling by Mandarin Pinyin.

• gao, kau

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): [k˭aʊ˨]

gau (not comparable)

1. (Singapore, colloquial, of coffee) Strong (used as a modifier after kopi (“coffee”)).

   Kopi Gau ― Strong coffee with sugar and condensed milk

2. (Singapore, colloquial, more generally, less common) Thick; having a strong or overwhelming flavour.
   • 2019 August 24, Yeo Boon Ping, quoting Zachary Tang, “If Zi Char Dishes Were In A Battle Royale, Which Would Come Out Tops?”, in ricemedia.co‎^[3], archived from the original on 12 July 2024:

     But for all the eggs and liao (ingredients) you have, it isn’t gao (strong).

gau

1. Alternative form of jow (“pre-metric unit of length in India”).

• AGU, Aug, Aug., GUA, UGA, aug

Achang numbers ^(edit)

←  8	9	10  →
Cardinal: gau

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tə-ŋguʔ.

• (Myanmar) /ɡɑu˧/
• (Longchuan) [kau³¹]
• (Luxi) [kʰjau⁵¹]
• (Xiandao) [kau³¹]

gau

1. nine

• Inglis, Douglas, Sampu, Nasaw, Jaseng, Wilai, Jana, Thocha (2005) A preliminary Ngochang–Kachin–English Lexicon‎^[4], Payap University, page 33

• gai

Unknown.

• IPA^(key): /ɡau̯/ [ɡau̯]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -au̯
• Hyphenation: gau

gau inan

1. night

• → Gascon: gaüs, gahús, guèhus, guehús, cahús, caüs, gohús

• gaut, go

• IPA^(key): /ɡo/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o

gau m (plural gaux)

1. (slang) louse

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡɑu]^[1][2]

gau m (nominative plural gaave)

1. village^[1]

• Kimmo Granqvist (2011) “Eräitä keskeisiä äännevaihteluja”, in Lyhyt Suomen romanikielen kielioppi [Consice grammar of Finnish Romani]‎^[5] (in Finnish), Helsinki: Institute for the Languages of Finland, →ISBN, →ISSN, retrieved 10 February 2022, page 12

Poetic clipping of gaudium. Attributed to Ennius (circa 200 BCE) by the poet Ausonius in his catalogue of monosyllabic Latin words, never attested directly.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɡau̯]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɡaːu̯]

gau n (indeclinable) (archaic, poetic, hapax legomenon)

1. clipping of gaudium (“joy”)
   • c. 310 CE – c. 395 CE, Ausonius, Technopaegnion 144:

     Ennius ut memorat, repleat te laetificum gau.

     As Ennius says, may gladdening joy fill you.

Indeclinable noun.

• “gau”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• gau in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “gau” in volume 6, part 2, column 1701, line 34 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present

From Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden, quick”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Dutch gauw (“quickly”), German jäh (“sudden, abrupt”). More at gay.

• IPA^(key): /ɡaʊ̯/

gau

1. quick

gau

1. chew

• gagau

From Old Norse gauð.

gau n (definite singular gauet, indefinite plural gau, definite plural gaua)

1. a bark
2. (collective) barking
3. noise

• gaua, gaue (verb)

• “gau” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• aug, aug., uga

From Old Frisian gā, from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz. More at gay.

• IPA^(key): /ɣaːu̯/
• Hyphenation: gau
• Rhymes: -aːu̯

gau

1. quickly; swiftly
2. soon; at once

• Rhymes: -aɨ̯

From Proto-Celtic *gāwā (“falsehood, lie”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeH₂u- (“to be faulty, at fault, lacking”). Cognate with Cornish gow, Breton gaou; outside of Celtic, compare Latin haud (“scarcely, hardly”), Avestan 𐬔𐬀𐬎 (gau, “to commit a sin; to promote”).

gau (feminine singular gau, plural geuon, equative geued, comparative geuach, superlative geuaf)

1. false, fake

   Synonym: ffals

• euog (“guilty”)

Mutated form of cau (“to close”).

gau

1. soft mutation of cau

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “gau”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
• Matasović, Ranko (2009) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 154
• Cheung, Johnny (2007) Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 2), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 95

From Old Frisian gā, from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz.

gau

1. quickly

   Synonym: rap

2. soon

• “gau (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011