shaw (n.)

1590s, "cloth having a velvet nap on one side," perhaps ultimately from Old English sceacga "rough matted hair or wool," but the word seems to be missing in Middle English. The Old English word is from Proto-Germanic *skagjan (source also of Old Norse skegg, Swedish skägg "beard"), and perhaps related to Old High German scahho "promontory," Old Norse skagi "a cape, headland," with a connecting sense of "jutting out, projecting." Also compare shaw (n.).

The meaning "rough, matted hair, wool, or the like" is from c. 1600. Of a kind of strong tobacco cut in fine shreds, from 1789; of carpets, rugs, etc. made of cloth having a long nap, from 1946.

1903, "in the style or manner of George Bernard Shaw" (1856-1950), from the Latinized form of his surname. An earlier unlatinized form was Shawian (1894).