saw

Etymology 1

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.

noun

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 teeth.
2. A musical saw.
3. A sawtooth wave.

verb

1. (transitive) To cut (something) with a saw.
2. (intransitive) To make a motion back and forth similar to cutting something with a saw.
   He said he was sometimes whistling a tune to himself — for, like me, he sawed a good deal on the fiddle; […] 1835, James Hogg, The Story of Euphemia Hewit
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

Etymology 2

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 (“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

1. (obsolete) Something spoken; speech, discourse.
   And for your true discourses, and I may live many winters, there was never no knight better rewarded […].
2. (archaic) A saying or proverb.
   old saw
   At his crowning[…] the priest in his honour preached on the saw, 'Vox populi, vox Dei.' 1902, Charles Robert Ashbee, Masque of the Edwards of England, page 8
   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 ― in your opinion
   commune saw ― common opinion/knowledge
   on no saw ― by no means
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.

Etymology 3

verb

1. simple past of see
2. (colloquial, nonstandard) past participle of see
   Mr. Harbaugh. All instances that I have saw. 1907, Report of the Special Committee of Investigation of the Government Hospital for the Insane, Govrnment Printing Office, page 297
   “I think so. He might have saw him already. Shit dude, I don't know. You run the place.” 2006, K.C. Carceral, Prison, Inc: A Convict Exposes Life Inside a Private Prison, NYU Press, page 68
   “I might have saw something,” I told him. “At least I think I might have saw something. Only I couldn't say what.” 7 October 2014, Frances O'Roark Dowell, Anybody Shining, Simon & Schuster, page 110