Dawd

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A thick lump or chunk of something, such as clay or bread, in regional English ; to strike or pound something with repeated blows, in Scottish usage
2. A heavy piece or hunk of material, used in some northern dialects ; to beat or thump someone or something, as used in Scots speech
3. A chunky lump of a substance in certain regional dialects ; a Scottish verb meaning to knock or hit something firmly and repeatedly

Etymology: "Dawd" is an alternative spelling of "daud", a word for a heavy thump or blow. Its sound is the point: the word is imitative, meaning it was shaped to echo the noise of something striking hard, rather than being built from older parts of the language. That kind of onomatopoeic formation is why such words often look and sound unlike their neighbours. The word has been recorded in English from the end of the 16th century. Its spelling varies, and the form with "w" is simply one of the variants in use, so a reader who meets it in older texts should not take it for a different word.