chow

Etymology

It is a clipping from Chinese Pidgin English chow-chow (“food; a mixture or medley”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} recorded from 1795.^[2][4][5] According to Yule, the pidgin word is of uncertain origin.^[5][6] Barnhart and Etymonline suggest a reduplication of a Chinese word meaning "mixed", and Etymonline also mentions the Cantonese word for "to fry, cook";^[2][4] the American Heritage Dictionary instead suggests a Cantonese word meaning "food, miscellany", the one in chop suey,^[8] and Merriam-Webster a Mandarin word for a meat dumpling.^[9][10] Partridge called the source of the pidgin adjective an unknown Chinese word.^[11] Hobson-Jobson notes that in pidgin chow meant food of any kind and chow-chow mixed preserves.^[12] The name of the dog, recorded from 1889 and as chow-chow from 1886, is of uncertain origin;^[2][3] Hobson-Jobson quotes the view that it comes from the mistaken belief that dogs were a main item of diet in China,^[12] and Green's Dictionary of Slang wonders whether the food word itself goes back to the dog's name.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Food: 1856, in American English, first in California,^[4][2][3] in the Spirit of the Age, where it is explained as something good to eat.^[13] The OED's first record of this sense is from Hobson-Jobson (1886).^[5]

Semantic evolution

In American use chow was at first especially Chinese food,^[4] and it became the usual slang word for food in institutions such as army mess halls and prisons.^[13] From 1907 it was also a verb, to eat,^[13] which Merriam-Webster dates to 1917;^[9] in North America chow down means to eat heartily.^[7][14] The noun also gave chowhound, a person who eats too much, in American slang.^[6] In Australia and New Zealand the word was an offensive name for a Chinese person, recorded from 1872, and chow-chow from 1869.^[5][6] The breed of dog from China, with a black or bluish tongue, was called a chow from 1889.^[5][2][6]

Timeline

• 1795 – pidgin chow-chow, food, a mixture.^[5][2]
• 1856 – food, in California.^[4][2][13]
• 1872 – offensive name for a Chinese person, chiefly Australian.^[5]
• 1886 – chow-chow, the dog.^[5][2]
• 1889 – chow, the dog.^[5][2]
• 1907 – verb, to eat.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (slang) food; also a meal or mealtime: We lined up for chow at six.^[9][15][5]
2. A chow-chow: a sturdy dog of a Chinese breed with a thick coat, a tail curled over the back and a bluish-black tongue.^[7][14][5]
3. (chiefly Australian, offensive, now dated) A Chinese person.^[5][9][6]

Verb

1. (informal, chiefly North American) To eat, often in chow down: The kids chowed down on pancakes.^[9][7][14]

Word family

• chowtime
• chowhound

Related words

• chow-chow
• chow mein
• chop suey

Usage notes

The Scots and dialect verb chow, to chew, recorded from 1382, is a variant of chew and has a separate source.^[5][6] Green's Dictionary of Slang also records chow as a spelling of ciao, goodbye, from 1961.^[13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins