Etymology: Old English clawu (Ep. Erf. Corp. clauuo ), oblique cases clawe . The quantity of the a is uncertain: if long, cláwu would be identical with Old Saxon clâuua (Middle Dutch claeuwe , Dutch klauw ), Old High German chlâwa (Middle High German klâwe , klâ , modern German klaue ), pointing to a type *klæ̂wâ- . But Ormin has the a short, and this answers better to the form clawu ; an original type *klawâ would also best explain the Old High German variant chlôa , chlô (through chlaua , chlau ). The Old English clawu (the ordinary West Saxon type) of the nominative was a new form reconstructed from the oblique cases; the original nominative type was cléa ( < clau , claw- ), and cléo ; see clee n. (The Old Norse kló is not identical; it appears to be < *klôh- , belonging to the verb klâ- , kló : see claw v.)

Etymology: In Old English in Ælfric's Gram.: where clawige belongs to a weak clawian , derivative of clawa claw n.: compare Old High German chlâwen , modern German klauen , kläuen , Old Dutch *klauwian , Middle Dutch clouwen , clôien , Middle Low German klouwen , also Middle Dutch claeuwen , Dutch klauwen , in same sense. But the Old English clawe implies a strong verb clawan , not found in the cognate languages. (The a in Old English is, as in the noun, of doubtful length.) In past tense Middle English had generally claw(e)de , modern clawed ; but the strong clew is found in 14–15th cent., apparently only in sense 3 as in modern Scots, which has also sometimes a past participle clewn . (But strong inflections of recent analogical origin are common dialectally.) It is possible that sense 3 and its extensions were influenced by the Old Norse strong verb klá (klah- , klôh- , klôgom ), used in that sense only, but not known to be etymologically related: see cloe v.