Forms: 6 alve, 7 aue, 9 ave, 6– awe, aw. [Etym. and original form unknown. The F. aube is said by Littré to mean ‘white wood,’ from the material of which the aubes are made.] One of the float-boards of an undershot water-wheel, on which the water acts.
1503. MS. Reg. Test. Ebor., VI. 83. Lez cogges, spyndyll, awes [of Butterwich Mill].
1532. MS. Reg. Leases Dean & Ch. York, I. 53. Cogges, spendeles, and alves [of Otley Mill].
1611. Cotgr., Aubes, the short boordes which are set into th’ outside of a water-mills wheele; we call them ladles, or aue-boords.
c. 1795. Unst, in Shetland Statist. Acc., V. 197 (Jam.). The water falls upon the awes, or feathers of the tirl, at an inclination of between 40 and 45 degrees.
1884. Rev. W. Gregor (in letter), Start-and-ave wheel, that is a wheel on the boards or aves of which the water struck, in opposition to ‘bucket-wheel.’—J. Melrose (in letter), The start is the piece of timber morticed into the rings, to which the awe is fastened.
