mawan

Forms

māwan (strong class 7; third-person singular present mǣwþ, past singular mēow, past plural mēowon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *māan, from Proto-Germanic *mēaną (“to mow”).^[1][2] The strong verb survives in Old Frisian miā, Old High German māen and Dutch maaien.^[2][3][4]

Kroonen derives it from Proto-Indo-European *h₂meh₁- (“to mow”), and Orel and Holthausen compare Ancient Greek ἀμάω (amáō, “to mow, reap”).^[2][5][3] Ringe and Taylor doubt the Greek comparison, because the Greek verb points to a root ending in *h₂, while the Germanic vowel points to *eh₁.^[6]

The verb is reduplicating (class VII); its ⟨w⟩ is a glide that arose between vowels, where Old High German had ⟨j⟩.^[2][7] Old High German moved it into the weak verbs.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the Old English Orosius, in a manuscript of the first half of the tenth century: of the Gauls in Rome it says Gelice & mon mæd mawe, hie wæron þa burg hergende & sleande “just as one mows a meadow, they were ravaging and slaying in the city”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used of cutting grass, hay and a meadow: the Old English Bede describes a land where no one mows hay, and the Rectitudines singularum personarum list reaping and mowing among the services owed.^[10][11] In the revised Gregory's Dialogues it renders Latin “fenum secare”, and a gloss has māwaþ for “tondent”.^[12] The Paris Psalter uses the participle of mown hay.^[10]

The word lived on as Middle English mowen, now English mow.^[13][14]

Timeline

• s. x¹ or x²/⁴ – Gelice & mon mæd mawe in the Old English Orosius.^[8][9]
• s. xi¹ – mæwþ “mows” hay in the revised Gregory's Dialogues.^[15][9][12]

Meanings

Verb

1. to mow grass or hay, to cut a meadow.^[10][16][17]

Word family

• āmāwan

Descendants

• Middle English mowen (→ English mow; Scots maw)^[1]

Related words

• mǣd
• mǣþ

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 360
3. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 216
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. māwan
5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 269
6. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 127
7. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 151
8. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 249
9. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
10. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 672
11. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 143
12. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 633
13. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
14. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 503
16. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 231
17. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 136