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Etymology and origin of the English word mew

Pronunciation

mew1 gull

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
early Old English glossary
Inherited from
Old English mæw via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *maiwaz

Etymology

The word for the gull is inherited from Middle English meue, also mewe and meau,[2][3] inherited from Old English mǣw,[4][5][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *maiwaz,[8][6] a word found only in Germanic.[8] It is cognate with West Frisian meau, Old Saxon mēw, Middle Dutch mēwe (now meeuw), Middle Low German mēwe, Old High German mēh and Old Norse már;[3][8][4][9] German Möwe was taken from Low German.[10][4] Etymonline, Partridge and Klein take it as imitative of the bird's cry,[6][11][10] but the OED calls its further origin uncertain and disputed.[4] Old French moue, whence mouette, is probably a borrowing from Germanic.[6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A gull: in an early Old English Latin glossary,[4] about 700 in Barnhart's dating.[3] Middle English meau is recorded before 1200.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the same meaning from Old English on, later applied especially to the common gull and the herring gull;[4] it is now mainly Scottish,[4] and otherwise archaic, poetic or dialectal, surviving in seamew and mew gull.[1][9]

Timeline

  • Old English – a gull.[4][2]
  • before 1200 – Middle English meau.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A gull, especially the common gull of Europe.[5][12][4]

Word family

  • seamew

mew2 cat's cry

Confidence
Established
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1325 before 1325, Glossary of Walter de Bibbesworth
From
Middle English meuen

Etymology

The verb for a cat's cry is inherited from Middle English meuen,[2][5][13] of imitative origin.[4][5][6][10] The OED compares meow, mewl and miaul,[4] and Etymonline and Weekley compare German miauen and French miauler.[6][14] The noun and interjection are formed from the verb.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a cat, to make its characteristic cry: before 1325, glossing French in the Glossary of Walter de Bibbesworth.[4][2] Barnhart and Etymonline give the same date.[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The verb was later used of gulls too,[4][6] and since 1602 of people whimpering or whining.[4] As an interjection mew imitated the cry from 1582 and expressed derision from 1600;[4] as a noun it is recorded from the 1590s, in Shakespeare's 1 Henry IV in Barnhart,[3][6] while the OED's noun for the sound of the cry dates only from before 1800, in Cowper.[4] In Cornish dialect the verb was used of the cry of gulls.[15]

Timeline

  • before 1325 – of a cat, to make its characteristic cry.[4][2]
  • 1582 – interjection, imitating a cat's cry.[4]
  • 1596 – noun, a mewing sound.[3][5] The OED's first record of the noun in this sense is from before 1800.[4]
  • 1602 – of a person, to whimper or whine.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of a cat, to make a high, soft cry; to meow.[5][12][4]
  2. Of a gull, to make its natural cry.[5][4]

Noun

  1. The high cry of a cat, or a similar sound.[5][12][4]

Word family

  • mewer

mew3 cage for hawks

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1375 before 1375, William of Palerne
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman mue via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin mūtō

Etymology

The word for the hawks' cage is inherited from Middle English meue, also mue, muwe and mewe,[2][16][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman mue and Middle French mue (“moulting; a cage for a moulting bird; a prison”),[4][17] from Old French muer (“to moult”),[4][6][7] from Latin mūtō (“to change”),[6][3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *mei- (“to change”).[6] The verb mew, to moult, is inherited from Middle English meuen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman muer,[4][2] and the verb to shut up or confine is formed from the noun.[4][5] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the third quarter of the 12th century, for moulting and for a coop for moulting hawks.[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

In mew, in hiding or confinement: before 1375, in William of Palerne.[4] Barnhart likewise dates the sense of a hiding place or place of confinement to before 1375.[3]

Semantic evolution

A mew was first any place of confinement or hiding, then a cage for fattening poultry (in Chaucer's General Prologue) and, in falconry, a cage for hawks, especially while they moulted (c. 1395, in the Squire's Tale).[4][3] Most of the general senses are now obsolete, although Johnson (1755) still defined the word as a cage or place of confinement,[4][18] and in Norfolk and Suffolk a mew was still a breeding cage for small birds in the 19th century.[15] The plural mews was used for the royal hawk-houses at Charing Cross, which became royal stables, hence a range of stables, now often converted into houses.[14][11] The verb mew, to moult, of hawks and of deer shedding antlers, is recorded from about 1380,[4][2] and the verb to confine from the 15th century;[4][3] to mew up, from 1581, is the only use still current.[4][14]

Timeline

  • before 1375 – in mew, in hiding or confinement (obsolete).[4][3]
  • c. 1380 – verb, of a hawk, to moult or shed its feathers.[4][2]
  • c. 1387 – a cage for fattening poultry (obsolete).[4]
  • c. 1395 – a cage for hawks, especially while moulting.[4][3]
  • c. 1450 – verb, to shut away, confine or hide.[4][3]
  • 1581 – verb, mew up, to shut up or confine.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cage or enclosure for hawks, especially while they moult.[5][12][4]
  2. (dialect) A breeding cage, as for canaries.[5][15]
  3. (obsolete) A place of confinement or hiding.[5][4]

Verb

  1. To shut up or confine, often with up: She stayed mewed up in her study all winter.[5][12][4]
  2. To put a hawk in a mew.[4][12]
  3. Of a hawk, to moult its feathers.[5][4]

Word family

  • mews
  • unmew

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ 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 45 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ a b c 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)
  16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  17. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.

Related etymologies

  • threaten · also from Old English
  • leap · also from Old English
  • squeeze · also from Old English
  • gum · also from Old English
  • grove · also from Old English
  • grind · also from Old English
  • float · also from Old English
  • fare · also from Old English
Cite this entry

“Mew.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/mew. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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