BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'

Subject: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Bert
Date: 05 May 06 - 06:12 PM

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: GUEST
Date: 05 May 06 - 06:17 PM

Splattering Poots All Wet?

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: jeffp
Date: 05 May 06 - 06:23 PM

I have it on the highest authority.......well, maybe not, that it's Gaelic for fart.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 May 06 - 06:23 PM

Superior Person, All Wise???

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Bert
Date: 05 May 06 - 06:31 PM

Perhaps this quote from the 'Squaw' thread is also appropriate here.

"Seems that certain behaviours are simply not tolerated, including the use of certain words."

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: catspaw49
Date: 05 May 06 - 06:46 PM

Aw geez......Leave it to Bert to make me the subject of a copycat thread.....although I admit I had the same thought and was hoping it would just slip by and not be created........***sigh***..........

Ye, it was Bert who did it.....Also the only man on the planet who seemed to have the ready knowledge right at his fingertips that the plural of penis as this ANCIENT post proves:
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Subject: RE: What brand condoms do Mudcatters prefer.
From: Bert - PM
Date: 18 Jan 99 - 09:55 AM

Frank,

Here's an old thread on the subject American cultural oddities

Catspaw49, the plural is penes.

Bert.
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Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 May 06 - 10:13 PM

It derives from the Lovecraft Mythos of the "Great Old Ones", demigods from some other dimension who used to rule the cosmos, but were cast out or put to sleep, yet may awaken at any time and turn everything totally to shit, to put it metaphorically.

Among those Great Old Ones the scariest seems to have been dread Cthulhu!!!! Cthulhu is totally nasty, merciless, and horrible beyond description. Anything proceeding forth from Cthulhu can be termed the "spawn of Cthulhu". Such spawn generally smell very bad, make hideous noises, and can be counted on to have an unsettling effect on all that they encounter as they lurch about in an inchoate and positively eldritch fashion, spreading havoc, terror, and random inconvenience of an extreme sort.

The word "spawn" then became vulgarized and shortened to "spaw" in the common vernacular.

And there you have it. ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Amos
Date: 05 May 06 - 10:16 PM

Actually, it is from a totallly different root, which is only cognate through the sort of semantic coincidence that gives us "though" and "thought".

The word derives from Olde English; when it was used it was the future pluperfect of the verb "to spew" which meant then pretty much what it means today.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 May 06 - 10:25 PM

I thought it came from an old SW Ohio answer:

"Who's that over there in the bushes with Maw?"
"Jis' Paw."

Which was pronounced "Ji spaw."

That is to say, "Spaw" in the guy in the bushes with Maw.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 May 06 - 10:42 PM

Naw, sillies; it's a noise that came out of his butt.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 05 May 06 - 11:05 PM

A malignant, rejected, sperm cell

One that was lacking an N to complete the process.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Kid, your paw ain't worth petuewy...pay for the DNA tests...you may hit a Hathaway.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 May 06 - 11:19 PM

If we all slowly go blind, it will be your fault, gargoyle.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Gurney
Date: 06 May 06 - 03:00 AM

'Catspaw'
[1]A person used by another for personal gain; A pawn.
[2]A rope with hitches to which tackle can be attached.
I've also seen/read it used as a light gust of wind (of the weather kind) which tends To accord with the teasing explanations above.


Ahh. Sorry about my attack of seriousness.   Over now.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: The Shambles
Date: 06 May 06 - 11:17 AM

C'mon we can all have some real fun with this.

Shithead
Prick
Asshole
Wanker

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: freda underhill
Date: 06 May 06 - 11:28 AM

we need a word archeologist (a hystoriolinguinist) to delve the pre indo-eurpoean origins of 'spaw.. the roost origins of this word come from a fertility myth - spawn of the Gods, the ancient Egyptian cats of the temples, catspaw..

freda

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Amos
Date: 06 May 06 - 12:36 PM

Indo-European root sp´ae, to heave, eject, send out forcibly, also ill wind or bad fortune. Old English spwa. Middle English spawne, from spawnen.

Indo-European cognates include -pet, generally to spread out, from which we derive pederasty.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Bert
Date: 06 May 06 - 12:40 PM

I think that it is also significant that a catspaw is an instrument for removing nails.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 May 06 - 12:57 PM

It comes from the Christmas song:

"Up on the housetop, Reindeer spaw"

Spaw is a verb of Laplandish derivation, which describes the movement reindeer make when digging out moss from under snow.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Cluin
Date: 07 May 06 - 01:48 AM

In French, it's a contraction, usually meaning "right?" or "innit?" or "eh?"

"`Spa?"



(short for "N'est pas?")

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Bert
Date: 07 May 06 - 02:11 AM

Or it could be Cheltenham Spa which would be even worse.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: chazkratz
Date: 07 May 06 - 06:51 PM

Actually, I believe it's onomatopoeic, used to identify the sound made when spitting out the chewed end of bad cigars. I get this from a later deleted line from "King of the Road": "Old stogies I have found, short but a-a-a-ck, spaw! spaw! SPAW!

--seed

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Bill D
Date: 07 May 06 - 07:07 PM

origins are hard to trace...but there seems to be relevance here..Society for the Protection of Artificial Wildlife

it does happen, though, that one image of a bit of wildlife NAMED Spaw exists...it may even be artificial .

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 May 06 - 07:13 PM

Yaughh!!!!!!!!!!   Is that Mr Congeniality at Penn State U.?

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: CarolC
Date: 07 May 06 - 11:36 PM

Oh my goodness, Bill!

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 May 06 - 12:20 AM

I always thought it was meant to embody his spawtaneity, his joie de vivre so to speak.:-)

Actually it was a lot easier and quicker to write 'spawdarlin' than Catspaw49darlin'!

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: Amos
Date: 08 May 06 - 09:50 AM

Seed!

Wow!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: redsnapper
Date: 08 May 06 - 10:00 AM

I thinks it's from the Afrikaans spoor meaning the the track of a wild animal. Hence to spoor: to track an animal by its spoor. Dialectically translated to the pronouniation spaw in Ohio and surrounding regions.

RS

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of the word 'spaw'
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 May 06 - 10:53 AM

WOW.....Seed arrived on this thread too!!! I juast put a note to him on the banjo camp music thread...........Great to see him around isn't it?

A really broad cross section on this thread ain't it?

Spaw