An archaic or dialectal form meaning to dawn or to become light at the beginning of day.
From Old English dagian, related to 'day.' The word evolved in Middle English dialects but fell out of common use as 'dawn' became the standard term.
This word shows how language naturally prunes less useful variations—'dawe' competed with 'dawn' and lost, but it survives in historical texts as a ghost of how people actually spoke centuries ago.
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