English Explanatory Dictionary

awk

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Odd; out of order; perverse.
  2. Wrong, or not commonly used; clumsy; sinister.
  3. Clumsy in performance or manners; not dexterous; awkward.
  4. Awkward; uncomfortable.
adv
  1. Perversely; in the wrong way.
name
  1. Alternative letter-case form of AWK.
intj
  1. Alternative spelling of och.
name
  1. A Unix scripting language for text processing, or the command line interface itself.
name
  1. Alternative letter-case form of AWK.

Pronunciation

/ɔːk/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-awk.wav /ɑːk/

Word forms

awk more awk most awk

Etymology

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”).

Synonyms

unhandy

Derived words

awkly awkness awkward
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