Results

gav, gaave, gaff, gave, gaw noun a town or village: Brother, this is a big gav and we’ll have to get through it before it gets too late.; London is called the Big Gaave 19-. Compare gaff, gav etymology: Romany; possibly from Persian or possibly a development of Hindi gāmva with the same meaning; gaave form also collected by EMcC/PS; attested by Galloway and Perthshire and Argyleshire Tinkler-Gypsies, BS in TDITA and DW, collected by Simson (1865) and RD; form gaave collected by Rev John Baird and Joseph F G S Lucas from Kirk Yetholm Gypsies note:

Grose and Egan (1823) also attest gaff which the mean a fair or carnival. Grellmann (1787) collected the forms Gaue; Gal ‘A Village; A Hamlet’ from Continental gipsies.

Simson (1865) only attests gave as a village he also collected the term forest ‘a town’.

Smart & Crofton (1875) collected the form Gav., n., ‘Town, village’ from English Gypsies.

Attested by Canadian Paul Pope (2013) with the same meaning.

In the twenty-first century male fairground workers, especially the ones who work on the faster roundabouts such as the waltzers, are called gaff-lads. This is the origin of the English and Scots slang term for a house or flat gaff.