awastadverbaway:I’m jawing awast [I’m going away.]20. etymology: origin obscure but possibly connected to the seafaring term avast! ‘hold, stop, stay’; attested by Galloway Tinkler-Gypsies so perhaps a Scots connection; also attested in Sheltanote:
Canadian Paul Pope (2013) attests a form awaft lo which he defines as ‘out of the way’.