Gau,

Gau, a German word meaning, in a general way, district, but applied specially to a political division of ancient Germany, having relation to the arrangements for war and the administration of justice. The division into such districts was in force under the Franks in the 7th century; and at the head of the gau was the graf (see COUNT). As the grafdoms became more and more hereditary, the gau, as a political division, fell into disuse (about the 12th century), and only in the names of some places—Rheingau, Breisgau, Aargau, &c.—do the traces of it remain. See HUNDRED, FEUDALISM, VILLAGE COMMUNITIES.