mawen

Middle English

Etymology 1

Feom Old English magan (“stomachs”), plural of maga, from Proto-Germanic *maganiz, plural of *magô; equivalent to mawe +‎ -en (“plural suffix”).

Noun

mawen

1. plural of mawe

Etymology 2

Verb

mawen

1. Alternative form of mowen (“to be able to”)

Etymology 3

Verb

mawen

1. Alternative form of mowen (“to mow”)

Yola

Alternative forms

• mawn, moan

Etymology

Raymond Hickey (Irish English: History and Present-Day Forms) suggests the stress of /ˈwʊmən/ "woman" and /ˈwɪmɪn/ "women" was first shifted and the stressed vowel lengthened, yielding /wuˈmaːn/ and /wɪˈmiːn/, followed by apheresis to /maːn/ and /miːn/, followed by the formation of a medial glide, yielding the singular mawen /mawən/ "woman" and plural meyen /mɪjɪn/ "women".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɔːn/
• Homophone: moan

Noun

mawen (plural meyen or meines or moans)

1. woman

   Coordinate term: man

   • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:

     Yold mawn.

     Old woman.

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 56