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chaff

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Etymology and origin of the English word chaff

Pronunciation

  • UK: /t͡ʃæf/, /t͡ʃɑːf/[1]
  • US: /t͡ʃæf/[1]

chaff1 husks of grain, worthless matter

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care
Inherited from
Old English ceaf via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-West Germanic *kaf

Etymology

The word for husks is inherited from Middle English chaf, also chef,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English ceaf,[5][6][7] from Proto-West Germanic *kaf.[1] It is cognate with Middle Dutch caf, Dutch kaf, Old Saxon kaf and Old High German kaf,[6] and probably related to cheva (“husk, pod”).[6][8] The further origin is uncertain and disputed.[6] Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it from a Germanic base meaning "gnaw, chew",[9][10] which would make it a relative of chafer,[10][11] and Etymonline and Köbler go on to Proto-Indo-European *gep(h)- (“jaw, mouth”).[7][12] Northern and Scots forms with hard c-, such as caf, suggest Scandinavian influence.[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Husks and other plant remains removed from grain by threshing and winnowing: early Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care,[6][5] which contrasts clean wheat with chaff thrown away.[5]

Semantic evolution

Old English also used the word for cut straw, as in the brickmakers' passage of Exodus;[6][5] this led to the modern sense of chopped hay and straw for fodder.[6][9] The OED first has the figurative sense of worthless matter before 1300, Hoad in the 13th century, Etymonline in the late 14th.[6][9][7] Barnhart sees an earlier sense "something evil", probably before 1200 in the Ancrene Riwle, before "something trivial" in Chaucer about 1390.[3] The contrast with wheat is recorded from before 1393, in Gower, and survives in to separate the wheat from the chaff.[6][13] The proverb that an old bird is not caught with chaff is recorded from 1481, in Caxton.[6] Botanists took the word for the husk of a grass from 1686, and for a small bract in the composite family from 1759.[6] Australian slang used it for money from 1939,[14] and in 1945 it is recorded as a military term for metal foil strips dropped to interfere with radar.[6][11]

Timeline

  • early Old English – husks removed from grain.[6][5]
  • Old English – cut straw, for bricks or fodder.[6]
  • before 1300 – refuse, worthless material.[6] Etymonline dates this to the late 14th century.[7]
  • before 1393 – contrasted with wheat, for what is bad or of little value.[6]
  • 1481 – the proverb an old bird is not caught with chaff.[6]
  • 1567 – like chaff before the wind.[6]
  • 1686 – in botany, the husk of a grass.[6]
  • 1703 – verb, to separate grain from the husk.[6]
  • 1789 – verb, to cut hay or straw for fodder.[6]
  • 1939 – Australian slang, money.[14]
  • 1945 – strips of metal foil used against radar.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The husks and other light matter separated from grain in threshing and winnowing: The wind carried the chaff across the yard.[13][4][6]
  2. Hay and straw cut up fine for fodder.[13][4][6]
  3. Something light and of little worth; rubbish: to separate the wheat from the chaff.[13][4][6]
  4. (botany) The dry bracts or scales around the florets of certain composite plants, or the husk of a grass.[13][4][6]
  5. Thin strips of metal foil released into the air to confuse radar.[13][6][11]

Verb

  1. To cut hay or straw into chaff.[4][6][11]
  2. To separate grain from the husk.[6]

Word family

  • chaffy
  • chaffless
  • chafflike
  • chaffinch

chaff2 good-natured banter

Confidence
Disputed
First attested
1648 W. Jenkyn, The Blind Guide

Etymology

The word for banter is of uncertain origin.[6][3] One view takes it from chaff1: Merriam-Webster Unabridged calls this probable and Barnhart and Dictionary.com possible, and the OED suggests that banter was felt as light and empty, or as being like the rough separation of grain from the husk.[4][3][15][6] The other takes it as a variant of chafe, which has spellings with a double f from the 16th century in the sense of scolding, so that teasing would be a kind of inflaming or rubbing.[9][6] Klein, Collins, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Green's Dictionary of Slang favour this,[16][13][10][14] and Partridge and Collins allow that the noun for husks influenced it.[17][13] Weekley saw a combination of both,[18] and the OED says that speakers may have felt several of these links together.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Worthless or mocking talk: in 1648 W. Jenkyn wrote "You pretend to nothing but chaffe and scoffes", which Green's gives as its first record of the noun.[14] Barnhart also dates the word to 1648, and Dictionary.com to 1640–50.[3][15] The OED thinks this use probably means worthless matter, but sees in it how the sense could have developed.[6] Green's also has the verb in a ballad dated about 1640: "chaffing say that's not the way".[14]

Semantic evolution

The modern word appears in the slang of the early 19th century.[9][6] The OED has the transitive verb from 1820, the intransitive verb from 1821, in Egan's Life in London, and the noun also from 1821.[6][14] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also dates the noun to 1821, and the transitive verb to 1827.[4] Green's quotes it from then on in British and Australian slang, as in "stow your chaff" in Sydney in 1845.[14] Modern dictionaries define it as light, good-humoured teasing.[13][4]

Timeline

  • 1648 – chaffe and scoffes, perhaps banter.[3][14][6]
  • 1820 – verb, to tease a person in a good-humoured way.[6]
  • 1821 – verb without an object, to banter; noun, banter.[6][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Light, good-natured teasing; banter: The sailors kept up a steady flow of chaff.[13][4][6]

Verb

  1. To tease someone in a good-natured way: They chaffed him about his new hat.[13][4][6]
  2. To banter; to joke with others.[4][6]

Word family

  • chaffingly

Usage notes

The OED has a verb chaff of uncertain origin, used since 1828 of working dough into a rounded loaf, perhaps a specific use of chafe.[6] In Scottish and Westmorland dialect, the English Dialect Dictionary records chaff as a form of that same verb, meaning to rub or to fret.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  9. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  16. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  17. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  18. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Chaff.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/chaff. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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