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lav noun a name: But I was tellin my naismort today that she dae that here, that she could get the cowls tae big us lav… to gie us lav… [I was tellin’ my mother today that she could do that here, that she could get the people to give us names … to get names …] 20-. etymology: probably a development from Romany lav ‘a word, a name’; possibly associated with Sanskrit lapa ‘to speak’; attested by CH and BS in TDITA and JS also collected by EMcC/PS note:

Grellmann (1787) collected the form Lawe ‘A Name’ and the form Lab ‘A Word’ from Continental gipsies. Smart & Crofton (1875) collected the form lav ‘Word, name’ from English Gypsies.

Canadian Paul Pope (2013) attests this form with the same meaning.