saw

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To cut something using a saw.

   He sawed the plank in half for the shelf.

2. 2
   verb

   To move something back and forth as if cutting with a saw.

   She sawed at the tough steak with her knife.

3. 3
   noun

   An old, well-known saying or proverb.

   He kept repeating the old saw that honesty is the best policy.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Saw in the expression old saw, meaning an old saying or maxim, is inherited from Old English. It is the English equivalent of Old Icelandic saga “narrative, story”; this account concerns the saying sense of saw, rather than the cutting tool.

The noun from Middle English sawe, sawgh, from Old English saga, sagu (“saw”), from Proto-West Germanic *sagu, from Proto-Germanic *sagô, *sagō (“saw”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”). Cognate with West Frisian seage (“saw”), Dutch zaag (“saw”), German Säge (“saw”), Danish sav (“saw”), Swedish såg (“saw”), Icelandic sög (“saw”), and through Indo-European, with Latin secō (“cut”) and Italian sega (“saw”). The verb from Middle English sawen, from the noun above.

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary