dew

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English deu, also deaw and dew,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English dēaw,^[5][6][7][8] inherited from Proto-Germanic *dawwaz (“dew, moisture”).^{[3][6][9][10]} The OED calls it common Germanic:^[11] it is cognate with Old Frisian dāw, Old Saxon dau, Dutch dauw, Old High German tou, German Tau and Old Norse dǫgg,^{[11][6][12][4]} and Swedish dagg and Danish dug continue the Norse form.^[11][10] Etymonline, the American Heritage Dictionary and Ayto connect it with Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“to flow, run”), the root of Ancient Greek θέω (théō, “to run”) and of a Sanskrit verb meaning "to flow",^{[3][7][10][4][8]} a link that Barnhart calls semantically remote,^[6] while Wiktionary derives it from *dʰewh₂- (“smoke, haze”).^[1] Orel compares Tocharian words for "dust" and Latin suffiō (“to fumigate”).^[13] The verb, Middle English dewen, implies an Old English verb formed from the noun and matches Old High German towōn and Old Norse dǫggva.^[11][12][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Moisture deposited in small drops from the air: Old English dēaw is recorded about 725, in the Old English Daniel,^[6] and translates Latin ros in the Psalms and in Exodus.^[5] The Middle English form deu appears probably before 1200,^[6] and the Ormulum (c. 1175) speaks of the earth watered by rain and dæw off heffne.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word was used figuratively of something refreshing or gentle, like dew, from late Old English or Middle English,^[3][12] and of morning and youthful freshness from the 1530s.^[3] By about 1400 it meant moisture in small drops generally,^[14][12] and it was used for tears from 1598 and for sweat from 1674.^[14] A deposit on a plant was also called dew from the mid 16th century, a sense now rare except in honeydew and mildew.^[12] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "the moisture upon the ground".^[15] In slang the dew, or mountain dew, is whisky, especially when illicitly distilled, recorded from 1836;^[16][17] Green's Dictionary of Slang also records a sexual sense from 1787.^[16] The verb meant to wet with dew from about 1175, and figuratively from about 1518; its intransitive sense "to fall as dew" is recorded from before 1382 to 1756 and is now obsolete or archaic.^[11][14] In Pembrokeshire dialect dew meant "to thaw", and a dew-beater was a large, clumsy shoe or a person with big feet.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English dēaw, dew, in the Daniel.^[6]
• c. 1175 – verb, to wet with dew, in the Ormulum.^[11][2]
• before 1200 – Middle English deu.^[6]
• before 1382 – verb, to fall as dew (obsolete or archaic by 1756).^[11][14]
• c. 1400 – moisture in small drops generally.^[14]
• 1530s – figuratively, of youthful freshness.^[3]
• 1598 – tears.^[14]
• 1674 – sweat.^[14]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as the moisture upon the ground.^[15]
• 1836 – slang, whisky.^[16]
• 1955 – DEW, distant early warning.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Small drops of water that condense from the air on cool surfaces, especially at night: The lawn was wet with dew at dawn.^[19][20][12]
2. Something likened to dew for its freshness, purity or refreshing quality.^[19][12]
3. Small drops of moisture, such as tears or sweat.^[19][12]
4. (slang) whisky, especially when illicitly distilled,^[16] also called mountain dew.^[17]

Verb

1. To wet with dew, or as if with dew: Tears dewed her cheeks.^[19][20][11]
2. (archaic) To fall or form as dew.^[20][11]

Word family

• dewless
• dewberry
• dewclaw
• dewdrop
• dewfall
• honeydew
• sundew
• dewy

Related words

• bedew
• mildew
• dhobi
• due

Usage notes

DEW, in capitals, is an abbreviation of "distant early warning", recorded from 1955, as in the DEW line of radar stations built in the 1950s.^[11][20][12] Dictionary.com notes that dew, do and due can sound alike.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c d e f g Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
18. ^ 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)
19. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
20. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
21. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House