pau

pau

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Palauan.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Palauan terms

pau (plural paus)

1. Alternative form of pa (“Maori fort”).

From Hawaiian Pidgin English pau, from Hawaiian pau (“done, finished”).

pau (not comparable)

1. (Hawaii) done; over; finished
   • 1946, Armine Von Tempski, Bright Spurs, page 122:

     I had never known any haoles except Elmer and Marks and they were ice cold affairs. Everyone was always glad when their twice-a-month visit was pau. The very island seemed to sigh with relief […]

   • 2004, Mike Ashman, Kauaʻi Historical Society, Kauai as it was in the 1940s and '50s:

     When the county truck was pau hauling rubbish for the day, […]

pau

1. (historical) A unit of volume used in Brunei, Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak, equivalent to 2 imperial gills (approximately 0.284 litres or 0.6 US pints).

Borrowed from Chinese 包.

pau

1. (Malaysia and Singapore) Alternative form of bao (“baozi; Chinese steamed buns with filling”).

• APU, AUP, PUA, UAP, UPA, pua

pau

1. head

• Kateřina Naitoro, A Sketch Grammar of 'Are'are: The Sound System and Morpho-Syntax (2013)

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈpaw]
• Rhymes: -aw

Inherited from Old Catalan pau, from Latin pācem, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ-. Compare Occitan patz, French paix, Spanish paz.

pau f (plural paus)

1. peace

• fer les paus (“to end a quarrel”)

• pacífic
• pacificar
• pagar

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

pau m (plural paus)

1. spotted dragonet (a fish of the species Callionymus maculatus)

   Synonyms: aferrapedres m, aferra-roques m

Uncertain. Sometimes ascribed to Paul, but also as a phonetic reduction of *paup, alternating form of palp (“the act of feeling”).

pau (feminine pava, masculine plural paus, feminine plural paves)

1. credulous; gullable; rustic

pau m (plural paus)

1. fool; rube

• “pau”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “pau”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “pau” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “pau” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Old Galician-Portuguese pao, from Latin pālus (“stake”), from Proto-Italic *pākslos, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ-slos, from *peh₂ǵ- (“attach”). Compare Portuguese pau and Spanish palo.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpaw/ [ˈpɑw]
• Rhymes: -aw

pau m (plural paus)

1. stick

   Synonym: vara

   • 1370, R. Lorenzo, editor, Crónica troiana, A Coruña: Fundación Barrié, page 605:

     [Et] poserõ perlos muros beesteyros et arque[yro]s muytos et outros, pera deytar quantos et paos agudos metudos en ferros, en guisa que os que se quisesem chegar ao muro nõ podesem escapar de morte

     And they arranged many crossbowmen and bowmen on the walls, to throw stones and sharp sticks inserted in irons, so as the ones who wanted to came near the wall could not escape the death

2. (uncountable) wood (material)

   Synonyms: fuste, madeira

   • 1457, F. R. Tato Plaza, editor, Libro de notas de Álvaro Pérez, notario da Terra de Rianxo e Postmarcos. Santiago: Concello da Cultura Galega (Ponencia de Lingua), page 171:

     Tres ballestas: J de aseyro, IJ de pao

     Three crossbows: one of steel, two of wood

   • 1700, Domingo Blanco, editor, A Poesía popular en Galicia, Vigo: Serais, page 124:

     Santo San Bras de Viana feito de pau de amieiro

     Saint Saint [sic] Blaise of Viana, carved in alder wood

3. blow

   Synonyms: golpe, pancada

• pau de cego

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “pao”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “pao”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “pau”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “pau”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “pau”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

From Proto-Nuclear Polynesian *pau (“finished”). Cognate with Samoan pau (“end, stop”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈpau̯/, [ˈpɐw], [ˈpɔw] (rapid speech)

pau

1. (stative) finished, done
2. (stative) destroyed
3. (idiomatic) all

   E aloha i nā hoa a pau.

   Greet all the friends.

• hoʻopau (“finish”, verb)
• papau (“deeply engaged”)
• pauaho (“out of breath”)

• pau in Combined Hawaiian Dictionary, at trussel2.com.

From Hawaiian pau (“finished”).

pau

1. done, finished

   You pau awready?

   Are you done already?

pau

1. mango

• páo (obsolete)

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese pao, from Latin pālus (“stake”),^[1][2] from Proto-Italic *pākslos, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ-slos, from *peh₂ǵ-. Compare Galician pau, Asturian palu, and Spanish palo.

• Rhymes: -aw
• Hyphenation: pau

• Audio (São Paulo):

  (file)

pau m (plural paus)

1. stick
2. wood
3. (figuratively, slang, vulgar) penis, dick, cock, prick

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pénis

4. singular of paus (“clubs”) (one of the four suits of playing cards)
5. (slang) a unit of currency

   Isso custou uns 500 paus. ― That cost about 500 bucks.

• Guinea-Bissau Creole: po
• Kabuverdianu: pó
• → Swahili: pao, pau

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

pau class IX (plural pau class X)

1. alternative form of pao

Suits in Swahili · ng'anda (see also: karata, karata za kucheza) (layout · text)
makopa	uru	shupaza, majembe	pao, pau, karanga, mavi ya mbuzi

Inherited from Middle Welsh peu, from Latin pāgus (“district, province”). Cognate with Cornish pow.

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /paɨ̯/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /pai̯/

pau f (plural peuoedd)

1. (archaic) land, nation

• gwlad

• D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “pau”, in Gweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin
• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “pau”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

From Latin pāvō (“peacock”).

pau c (plural pauwen, diminutive pauke)

1. peacock

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