awk

See also: Awk, âwk, and AWK

Translingual

Symbol

awk

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Awabakal.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Awabakal terms

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɔːk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɔːk/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ɑːk/
• Rhymes: -ɔːk, -ɑːk
• Homophone: auk

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep

Proto-Indo-European *-o

Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó

Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ-

Proto-Indo-European *h₂époh₃kʷos

Proto-Germanic *abuhaz

Old Norse ǫfugrder.

Middle English awke

English awk

From Middle English awke, from Old Norse ǫfugr, ǫfigr, afigr (“turned backwards”) (whence Danish avet (“backwards”), Swedish avig (“turned backwards”)), from Proto-Germanic *abuhaz. Cognate with German äbich, Gothic 𐌹𐌱𐌿𐌺𐍃 (ibuks, “turned back”). Akin to Sanskrit अपाच् (apāc, “turned away”). Compare dialectal Danish ave (“to turn”), Dutch averechts (“opposite, backwards, contrary”), Icelandic öfga (“to reverse”).

Adjective

awk (comparative more awk, superlative most awk)

1. (obsolete) Odd; out of order; perverse.
2. (obsolete) Wrong, or not commonly used; clumsy; sinister.
   • 1567, Arthur Golding, Metamorphoses:

     the awk end of hir charmed rod

3. (obsolete, UK, dialect) Clumsy in performance or manners; not dexterous; awkward.

   Synonym: unhandy

   • 1815 Sir Egerton Brydges, Archaica: Harvey's Four letters, and sonnets, touching Robert Greene; Pierce's supererogation; [and] New letter of notable contents. Brathwaite's Essays upon the five senses, From the private press of Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, printed by T. Davison, p142

     […] whose wild and madbrain humour nothing fitteth so just, as the stalest dudgen or absurdest balductum, that they or their mates can invent in odd and awk speeches […]

5. (US, slang, of a situation) Awkward; uncomfortable.

Derived terms

• awkly
• awkness
• awkward

Adverb

awk (comparative more awk, superlative most awk)

1. (obsolete) Perversely; in the wrong way.
   • 1570, Thomas Tusser, “Comparing Good Husband with Vnthrift His Brother, the Better Descerneth the Tone from the Tother”, in A Hundrethe Good Pointes of Husbandrie, Lately Maried vnto a Hundrethe Good Points of Huswifry Newly Corrected and Amplified […], revised edition, London: […] [Henry Denham? for] Rychard Tottyl, published 1571, →OCLC, stanza 13, folio 22, verso:

     Ill huſbandry drowſeth at fortune ſo awke, / good huſbandry rowſeth him ſelfe like a hawke.

Etymology 2

Proper noun

awk

1. Alternative letter-case form of AWK.
   • 2002, Æleen Frisch, Essential System Administration: Tools and Techniques for Linux and Unix Administration, 3rd edition, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 77:

     One thing awk is good for is picking out and possibly rearranging columns within command output.

   • 2022 October 23, Red Hat, Inc., “Senior Software Engineer”, in The News & Observer, volume 158, number 296, Raleigh, N.C., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9B, column 2:

     Must have exp w/ shell, incl Bash, & command line text processing incl grep, awk, & sed.

Etymology 3

Interjection

awk

1. Alternative spelling of och.

References

• “awk”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Kaw, Kwa, kaw