faw

Faw is an exclamation of disgust, distaste, or scorn, functioning much like 'ugh', 'bah', or its close variant 'faugh'. It is an interjection rather than a content word, so it carries no grammatical role beyond injecting the speaker's reaction into a sentence — typically set off by quotation marks or an exclamation point. The word is largely archaic: it flourished in earlier centuries of English writing and appears most often now in historical fiction or comic dialogue meant to sound starchy and old-fashioned, where a fastidious character might recoil from something unpleasant with a crisp 'faw'. Because it is imitative of an expression of revulsion rather than derived from another word, it belongs to the family of natural exclamations that languages develop independently. For contemporary readers it is chiefly of curiosity value, but it remains a legitimate, if dated, way to voice disdain.

An exclamation used to express disgust, distaste, or scorn; a variant of the more common 'faugh'.

Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.

Etymology of faw

Faw is an imitative exclamation, arising directly from the sound of an expression of disgust rather than descending from another word. It is generally treated as a variant form of 'faugh', which has been recorded in English since at least the seventeenth century as a cry of contempt or aversion. Similar exclamations of disgust occur independently across many languages, reflecting their onomatopoeic character.

How faw is actually used

Archaic and literary in modern usage; today it appears mainly in older fiction or for deliberate old-fashioned effect. It is essentially a spelling variant of 'faugh'.

Easily confused with faw

What's another word for faw?

Rhymes with faw