overwordExplorer
WELSH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cau.

to close, shut

3 characters1 syllables approx.Cymraeg language

Meaning & usage

verb/kaɨ̯/North-Wales/kai̯/South-Wales

  1. to close, shut

    ambitransitive

  2. to fasten

    transitive

  3. to heal, to close

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle Welsh cael, from Old Welsh ci, from Proto-Brythonic *kėɣɨd, from Proto-Celtic *kageti, from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰ- (“catch, grasp”) (compare Oscan 𐌊𐌀𐌇𐌀𐌃 (kahad, “may he take”), Albanian kam (“to have, hold”).

adj/kaɨ̯/North-Wales, colloquial, standard/kai̯/South-Wales, colloquial, standard/kɔi̯/South-Wales, colloquial

  1. hollow, empty, sunken

  2. false, deceitful

    figuratively

  3. enclosing; shut, closed

Where this word comes from

From Middle Welsh keu, from Proto-Brythonic *kaw (whence Breton kev), from Proto-Celtic *kawyos, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁- (“to swell”). Cognate with Irish cuas, Latin cavus.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.