grow

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ɡrəʊ/, US /ɡroʊ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English growen,^[2][3] inherited from Old English grōwan (“to flourish, develop, get bigger (of plants)”),^[4][3] from Proto-Germanic *grō-,^[4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *ghre- (“to grow, become green”),^[4] the source also of grass and green.^[3][6] It is cognate with Old Frisian grōia, Dutch groeien, Old High German gruoen and Old Norse gróa.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a plant, to flourish, put forth leaves: about 725, in Genesis A.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Old English used the verb only of plants;^[3][6] for people and animals the usual word was weaxan, now wax.^[3] It was applied to human beings from about 1300 and to animals from the early 15th century, and supplanted weaxan in the general sense “to increase”.^[4][3] From “to develop” came the sense “to come to be, become”, as in grow old.^[8][9] Grow on, “to gain in someone's liking”, is from 1712,^[4] and the transitive sense “to cause to grow, raise” from 1774.^[4] The figurative “to expand a business” is a 20th-century use.^[2][8] Grower is from 1449,^[3] the adjective grown-up from before 1393,^[3] the noun a grown-up in Jane Austen's letters in 1813,^[3] and growth from 1557.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 725 – of plants, to flourish.^[3]
• c. 1300 – of human beings.^[4]
• early 15th century – of animals.^[4]
• 1449 – grower.^[3]
• 1557 – growth.^[3]
• 1712 – grow on.^[4]
• 1774 – to cause to grow, cultivate.^[4]
• 1813 – a grown-up.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To increase in size by a natural process, as a living thing does.
2. To develop and reach maturity.
3. To increase in amount or degree; to expand.
4. To come to be gradually; to become: grow tired.
5. To raise or cultivate plants or crops.
6. To make a business or economy larger.

Word family

• grower
• growingly
• growable
• grown-up
• growth
• outgrow
• overgrow

Related words

• grass
• green
• grown
• wax

Usage notes

The past tense is grew and the past participle grown,^[9] growed is dialectal or colloquial.^[9]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press