• (RP) enPR: sô, IPA: /ˈsɔː/
• (America) enPR: sô, IPA: /ˈsɔ/
• (America, intrusive r, New England) IPA: [ˈsɔɹ]
• (cot-caught) enPR: sä, IPA: /ˈsɑ/
• (rare, idiosyncratic, past tense of see (for example, as used by Dina Cappiello of the Associated Press)) IPA: /ˈsɑl/

The noun from Middle English sawe, sawgh, from Old English saga, sagu ("saw"), from Proto-West Germanic *sagu, from Proto-Germanic *sagô, *sagō, from Proto-Indo-European *sek-.

Cognate with Western Frisian seage, Dutch zaag, German Säge, Danish sav, Swedish såg, Icelandic sög, and through Indo-European, with Latin secō and Italian sega.

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

saw (plural saws)

1. A tool with a toothed blade used for cutting hard substances, in particular wood or metal.
   1. Such a tool with an abrasive coating instead of tooth.
2. A musical saw.
3. A sawtooth wave.
4. (whist) The situation where two partners agree to trump a suit alternately, playing that suit to each other for the express purpose.

• French: scie
• German: Säge
• Italian: sega
• Portuguese: serra, serrote
• Russian: пила́
• Spanish: sierra

saw (saws, present participle sawing; simple past and past participle sawed)

1. (transitive) To cut (something) with a saw.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Hebrews 11:37 ↗:

     They were stoned, they were sawen asunder, were tempted, were slaine with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskinnes, and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented.

2. (intransitive) To make a motion back and forth similar to cutting something with a saw.
   • 1835, James Hogg, The Story of Euphemia Hewit:

     He said he was sometimes whistling a tune to himself — for, like me, he sawed a good deal on the fiddle; […]

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

• French: scier
• German: sägen
• Italian: segare
• Portuguese: serrar
• Russian: (imperfective) пили́ть
• Spanish: serrar

From Middle English sawe, from Old English sagu, saga ("story, tale, saying, statement, report, narrative, tradition"), from Proto-West Germanic *sagā, from Proto-Germanic *sagō, *sagǭ ("saying, story"), from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷe-, *skʷē-, from *sekʷ- ("to say").

Cognate with Dutch sage, German Sage, Danish sagn, Norwegian soga, Icelandic saga. More at saga, say. Doublet of saga.

saw (plural saws)

1. (obsolete) Something spoken; speech, discourse.
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book V, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC ↗; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC ↗:

     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 […].

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (archaic) A saying or proverb.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:saying

   old saw

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [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.

   by thy saw

   commune saw

   on no saw

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

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

5. (obsolete) Dictate; command; decree.
   • 1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “Colin Clouts Come Home Againe”, in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

     [Love] rules the creatures by his powerful saw.

• French: proverbe
• German: Spruch, Sprichwort
• Italian: adagio
• Portuguese: provérbio
• Russian: посло́вица
• Spanish: proverbio, refrán, dicho

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

1. (Islam, sometimes, proscribed) صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ

   Synonyms: PBUH, AS

saw (plural saws)

1. (military, US) A squad automatic weapon or section automatic weapon, a kind of light machine gun.
2. (physics) Initialism of surface acoustic wave

Various origins:

• English metonymic occupational surname for a sawyer, from saw.
• Borrowed from Hindi साव; this surname is predominantly found in Jharkhand state.
• Borrowed from Burmese စော, a nickname meaning "honorable".

1. Surname.

saw (plural saws)

1. (slang, African American Vernacular English) A Bahamian.