English is, as we know, a result of mixed linguistic impulses over long periods of time. Old Norse is an easily identifiable one, and also shares older Germanic roots with English. Thus, when I saw the word "maw," as a Norwegian I immediately knew its approximate meaning.

The Old English word "maga" is still current in all the main Scandinavian languages. It is spelled with an 'e' at the end: "mage" (Swedish and Norwegian), "mave" (Danish). It means "stomach, gut" either generally (general non-technical usage) or specifically as the muscular bag near the beginning of the alimentary canal (medical usage). However, to my knowledge it does not connote "mouth" or "throat" in any modern Scandinavian language.

In colloquial Eastern Norwegian the standard Norwegian "mage" is very often pronounced "maga," in both cases with a hard 'g'. Danish pronounciation to my ears is very close to current English spelling, but with two syllables: "mah-wuh." With a hard 'v' something like it is also found in several variants of Norwegian.

maw

In Old English maga meant 'stomach' (link), and in Middle English it continued that meaning as well as 'chest, belly, gut; liver' (link), but there also developed the modern sense in English of 'jaws, mouth'.

I don't think that English maw is a borrowing from Old Norse (Old Icelandic). It occurs in other non-Scandinavian, i.e., Western, Germanic languages, such as German Magen 'stomach'.

'maw' and our Du.'muil', which is a direct translation, could be there be a relation somewhere? zmjezhd ??? The sound is quite similar. 'Muil' in Dutch it is an old uncivilized word for mouth.

In The Two Towers, Frodo and Sam, attempting to reach the Black Gate of Mordor, are lost in the eastern Emyn Muil for days until Gollum finds them.

Link

How do you write the the Norse word for mouth John Aalborg? Welcome.

Jon, welcome aBoard! You're the first (declared) Norwegian we've had!

Branny, good to see you--you've been a bit quiet lately, and I missed you.

Welcome, Jon

Yes, I'm a bit off the active topics cause I must be active for a while at the 'real' work/fun, art. I keep up reading you though!

I'm replying to today's word, KIP. (I don't quite know how to navigate this site yet, but, as a poet, I love it.) Re. the various meanins of "kip": try as I may, I can't see how any of the definitions apply to the 2nd example. The example seems to suggst a finite unit of measure, much more definite than the vague notion of the weight of a bundle of furs. My bundle may be your handfull. Your nap may be a lot heavier than mine, and the same goes for your bed.

Clarinda

Welcome Clarinda

It took me a while to navigate. Glad to have you here.

Kip over here is a sort of slang for a quick, short sleep...like a cat nap...it means a short deliberate nap...power nap I think they are called in America

That is interesting: kip=power nap.
It is also of note that we had that in the anagram game
yesterday.

What I remember of your kip yesterday is that you boldly made "kip" the singular of "kippers", while we all know that the singular of kippers is kipper and we let you get away with plain false play.

Oh we did, did we? More roolz??????

Oh, no no, playing false elegantly can be part of the game , as long as it does not break the game. So let the games continue.

We enjoy 'our game' Bran and sometimes deviate to the silly side

Kip..in Australia, means 'taking a nap' or sleep.

re Maw as relates to a voracious animal..but also
Maul... the act of causing severe bodily injuries, often from an animal attack. I wonder if they are related.
When a carnivorousness animal eats its prey..it often will start in the abdomen.

Hey, that's true.

And after mauling the animal with its maw, it lays down
for a kip. (I don't think I could survive Aussi conversation).

Is the proper usage:
I am going to kip for a while.
I am going to kip out for a while.
Or
I am going to take a kip.

Obviously meaning it could be a noun or a verb.

It is a noun and a verb so I was wondering what the common form of usage is. The example is "DC kipped", but if you use it first person singular how would you say it.

(I'm) going for a kip

or 'ahh look - he's having a kip'

or to small tired (often grumpy as a result) child 'fancy a kip?'

Got it. Thanks.

There's also a gymnastics use of "kip" -- a kind of flip from a hang to a support position (www.gymnasticsrevolution.com).

Some words get curiouser and curiouser.

I didn't see it in that reference Verb....but this article has it, with pictures. We are learning things here. I have watched bar work sometimes and never given a thought to what the moves were called.

Gymnastic Kip

This whole thread looks weird to me as kip in our language means
chicken. So, 'I'm taking a kip' and 'gymnastic kip' looks quite funny to me.

You take a kip and rub it with pepper and sea salt.

Marker pens are often employed on young or old by young or old when the one is taking a kip...they wake up with drawn on glasses and moustaches...they don't realise for a while...is quite funny...

until you've tried to wash it off. yuk,yuk. When in boarding
school, we marked other parts of the anatomy, or left messages and we did it for years - and were never caught.

I admire the sleeper who would not get wide awake by this foul act.

this foul act But if a kip is a chicken, wouldn't it have been a fowl act?

Kids who were kept going all day long with scarce a break
were dead tired at night. Especially the younger ones.
They were "dead to the world" when they finally fell asleep.

Ha!

But back for a second to "kip", the real given word last week. I came across this passage in a book I'm just reading: "Homo Ludens" (Men The Player) by Johan Huizinga.
Huizinga was a philologist who uses language and the history of language to support his ideas.

I first give the quote from his lecture: ( from a passage about the Algonkin languages, Blackfoot language)



“Play is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing.”


Huizinga's idea is that the property play, game (present both in the animal and human kingdom) is the property from which all our forms of culture: music, art, religions, law, state - and social organisation were born.

For those really interested I give the wiki-article.

Homo Ludens

N.B. the book is really interesting and entertaining.

A most interesting article, thanks Bran.

Indeed. My thanks also.