What does blaw mean?
Blaw is a Scots verb meaning to blow — to move as the wind does, or to send out a current of air from the mouth. It is the Scottish counterpart of the standard English word "blow", descending with it from the same Old English root, and it appears throughout Scots literature from ballads to Burns. A line like "the wind blaws cauld" is instantly recognisable to readers familiar with Scottish writing, even though speakers of standard English would use "blows" in the same position. The word carries no special connotation beyond its regional colouring; its value lies in authenticity and tradition. Today it survives mainly in poetry, song, dialect speech, and older rural usage, making it a small but durable marker of Scots linguistic identity.
verbA Scots form of "blow": to move air or be moved by air, as the wind does, or to send out a current of air.
- (of wind or air) to move with force; to blow
- (of someone) to send out a current of air; to puff or blow on something
"The gale blawed sae hard that naebody could walk up the brae."
"The cauld wind blawed through the glen aw nicht."
"She blawed on the embers till the fire took again."
"Blaw" isn't a typo — it's how centuries of Scots poetry have said "blow," straight from Old English.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of blaw
Blaw descends from Old English blāwan, "to blow", via Middle English and northern dialect forms that retained the vowel and ending characteristic of Scots. It shares this ancestry with the standard English verb "blow" and ultimately traces back to the same Proto-Germanic root that also gave rise to words like "blast". The form has been continuously used in Scots since the medieval period and remains a hallmark of the dialect's literary vocabulary.
Related word forms
How blaw is actually used
Chiefly literary and dialectal; found in Scots poetry and traditional speech rather than everyday modern usage outside Scotland. Past tense is often "blew" as in standard English, with "blawn" as past participle.
Easily confused with blaw
"Blaw" is the Scots equivalent of standard English "blow", carrying the same core meanings in a Scottish register.