Etymologically
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grow

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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

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