different between seesaw vs saw

English

Alternative forms

• see-saw

Etymology

Probably a frequentative imitative of rhythmic back-and-forth, up-and-down or zigzagging motion, such as teeter-totter, zigzag, flip-flop, ping pong, etc., under the umbrella term of reduplication; also likely influenced by the verbs see and saw of either present or past tense.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?si?s??/

Noun

seesaw (plural seesaws)

1. A structure composed of a plank, balanced in the middle, used as a game in which one person goes up as the other goes down.

   Synonym: teeter-totter

2. A series of up-and-down movements.
3. A series of alternating movements or feelings.

   • He has been arguing in a circle; there is thus a see-saw between the hypothesis and the fact.

Translations

Verb

seesaw (third-person singular simple present seesaws, present participle seesawing, simple past and past participle seesawed)

1. (intransitive) To use a seesaw.
2. (intransitive, by extension) To fluctuate.
3. (transitive) To cause to move backward and forward in seesaw fashion.
   • 1832, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Eugene Aram

     He see-saws himself to and fro.

Translations

Adjective

seesaw (comparative more seesaw, superlative most seesaw)

1. fluctuating.

Anagrams

• Weases

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sô, IPA^(key): /s??/

  Homophones: (in some non-rhotic accents): soar, sore

• Rhymes: -??
• (US) enPR: sô, IPA^(key): /s?/
• (cot–caught merger) enPR: sä, IPA^(key): /s??/

  (idiosyncratic, past tense of 'see') IPA^(key): /s??l/

Etymology 1

The noun from Middle English sawe, sawgh, from Old English saga, sagu (“saw”), from Proto-Germanic *sagô, *sag? (“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 sec? (“cut”) and Italian sega (“saw”).

The verb from Middle English sawen, from the noun above.

Noun

saw (plural saws)

1. A tool with a toothed blade used for cutting hard substances, in particular wood or metal
2. A musical saw.
3. A sawtooth wave.

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: sa

Translations

Verb

saw (third-person singular simple present saws, present participle sawing, simple past sawed, past participle sawed or sawn)

1. (transitive) To cut (something) with a saw.

   They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

2. (intransitive) To make a motion back and forth similar to cutting something with a saw.

   The fiddler sawed away at his instrument.

3. (intransitive) To be cut with a saw.

   The timber saws smoothly.

4. (transitive) To form or produce (something) by cutting with a saw.

   to saw boards or planks (i.e. to saw logs or timber into boards or planks)

   to saw shingles; to saw out a panel

Derived terms

• saw gourds
• saw wood

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English sawe, from Old English sagu, saga (“story, tale, saying, statement, report, narrative, tradition”), from Proto-West Germanic *sag?, from Proto-Germanic *sag?, *sag? (“saying, story”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek?e-, *sk??-, from *sek?- (“to follow”). Cognate with Dutch sage (“saga”), German Sage (“legend, saga, tale, fable”), Danish sagn (“legend”), Norwegian soga (“story”), Icelandic saga (“story, tale, history”). More at saga, say. Doublet of saga.

Noun

saw (plural saws)

1. (obsolete) Something spoken; speech, discourse.

   • And for thy trew sawys, and I may lyve many wynters, there was never no knyght better rewardid […].

     And for your true discourses, and I may live many winters, there was never no knight better rewarded […].

2. A saying or proverb.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:saying

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II Scene VII, lines 152-5.

     And then the justice, / In fair round belly with good capon lined, / With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, / Full of wise saws and modern instances.

   • 1902, Charles Robert Ashbee, Masque of the Edwards of England, page 8.

     At his crowning […] the priest in his honour preached on the saw, 'Vox populi, vox Dei.'

   • 2017, Andrew Marantz, "Becoming Steve Bannon's Bannon", The New Yorker, Feb 13&20 ed.

     There’s an old saw about Washington, D.C., that staffers in their twenties know more about the minutiae of government than their bosses do.

3. (obsolete) Opinion, idea, belief.

4. (obsolete) Proposal, suggestion; possibility.
   • c. 1350-1400, unknown, The Erl of Toulous

     All they assentyd to the sawe; They thoght he spake reson and lawe.

5. (obsolete) Dictate; command; decree.
   • 1595, Edmund Spenser, Colin Clouts Come Home Againe

     [Love] rules the creatures by his powerful saw.

Derived terms

• soothsaw
• withsaw

Translations

Etymology 3

Verb

saw

1. simple past tense of see
2. (colloquial, nonstandard) past participle of see

Interjection

saw

1. (slang) What's up (either as a greeting or actual question).

Anagrams

• ASW, AWS, Was, aws, was

Atong (India)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?aw/

Adjective

saw (Bengali script ???)

1. rotten

Khasi

Etymology

From Proto-Khasian *sa?w, an innovation of the Khasian branch. Cognate with Pnar soo.

Numeral

saw

1. four

Middle English

Noun

saw

1. saw
   • 1387', Ranulf Higden, John of Trevisa (translator), Polychronicon

     Þe more comoun sawe is þat Remus was i-slawe for he leep ouer þe newe walles of Rome.

     The more common opinion is that Remus was slain for he lept over the new walls of Rome.

Northern Kurdish

Noun

saw ?

1. terror
2. horror

Scots

Pronunciation

• (Doric and most Southern Scots dialects) IPA^(key): /sa/
• (Central and some Southern Scots dialects) IPA^(key): /s?/

Etymology 1

Verb

saw

1. (South Scots) simple past tense of sei
2. (Northern and Central) simple past tense of see

Etymology 2

Noun

saw (plural saws)

1. A salve.

Zhuang

Pronunciation

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /?a???/
• Tone numbers: saw¹
• Hyphenation: saw

Etymology 1

From Proto-Tai *s??? (“writing; book”), from Middle Chinese ? (MC ???, “writing; book”). Cognate with Lao ?? (s??), Thai ??? (s???).

Alternative forms

• sw

Noun

saw (Sawndip forms ???? or ? or ???? or ????, old orthography s??)

1. written language; writing; script
2. (Chinese) character
3. word
4. book
5. teaching material
6. receipt; voucher

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Proto-Tai *sa?? (“clear; clean”). Cognate with Thai ?? (s?i), Northern Thai ??, Isan ??, Lao ?? (sai), Lü ?? (?ay), Tai Dam ??, Shan ??? (s?ue), Tai Nüa ??? (sáue), Ahom ???????? (saw) or ???????????? (sawu).

Adjective

saw (Sawndip forms ???? or ???? or ?, old orthography s??)

1. clean
2. (of transparent objects, water, etc.) clear
3. (of liquids other than water) watery; thin

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “from ??”)

Verb

saw (Sawndip forms ???? or ?, old orthography s??)

1. to lose