mow

mow¹ heap of hay, part of a barn

Pronunciation

• /maʊ̯/^[1]

Etymology

The word for a stack of hay is inherited from Middle English moue, also mowe,^[2][3][1] inherited from Old English mūga, also mūha and mūwa,^{[4][5][3][6][7]} from Proto-West Germanic *mūgō and Proto-Germanic *mūgô.^[1][5] It is cognate with Old Norse múgi (“swath, crowd”) and múgr (“crowd, common people”),^[4][5][6][8] with Norwegian Nynorsk muge (“heap, pile, crowd”),^[4][1] and with Middle High German mocke (“lump”).^[5][3] The word is not securely recorded in the continental West Germanic languages, and its further origin is uncertain;^[4][8][6][9] the OED and Barnhart compare Byzantine Greek μύκων (múkōn, “heap”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A heap or stack of grain or hay: Old English mūha, glossing Latin acervus "heap", in the Corpus Glossary, before 800.^[5][4][7]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English a moue was a heap or stack of hay, grain, beans or peas;^[2][4] Laȝamon's sparrows feed in the muȝen.^[7] From the 15th to the 17th century the word could also mean any heap or pile, or a mound.^[4][9] The sense "a place in a barn where hay or grain is stored" is recorded from before 1643,^[4] and Etymonline dates it by 1755,^[8] when Johnson defined a mow as a loft or chamber where hay or corn is laid up, distinguishing hay in mow, in a house, from hay in rick, in a field.^[10] The verb "to stack hay or grain" is recorded before 1325, in Walter de Bibbesworth's glossary.^[4][2] The word is now chiefly North American and dialectal,^[9] and is in general dialect use in Scotland and England.^[11]

Timeline

• before 800 – mūha, a heap of grain, in the Corpus Glossary.^[5][4]
• before 1300 – Middle English mowe, a stack of hay or grain.^[5]
• before 1325 – verb, to stack hay or grain.^[4]
• c. 1424 – a heap or pile of anything (obsolete).^[4]
• before 1643 – the part of a barn where hay is stored.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stack or heap of hay, straw or grain, especially one stored in a barn.^[3][4][9]
2. The part of a barn where hay or grain is stored; a hayloft.^[3][4][9]

Verb

1. To stack or store hay or grain in a mow: They mowed the oats away before the rain.^[3][4][9]

Word family

• haymow

mow² to cut grass or grain

Pronunciation

• UK: /ˈməʊ/^[1]
• US: /ˈmoʊ/^[1]

Etymology

The verb for cutting grass is inherited from Middle English mouen,^[2][3] inherited from Old English māwan, a strong verb,^[4][8][5][9] from Proto-West Germanic *māan and Proto-Germanic *mēaną.^[1][12][13] In the other Germanic languages the verb is weak: Old Frisian miā, Middle Dutch maeyen, Dutch maaien, Middle Low German meien, Old High German māen and German mähen.^{[4][6][5][12]} Outside Germanic it is related to Ancient Greek ἀμάω (amáō, “to reap, mow”), and through a variant of the same base to Latin metō (“to reap”) and Welsh medi (“to reap”),^{[4][3][14][13]} all from Proto-Indo-European *h₂meh₁- (“to mow, reap”).^{[1][8][15][5]} From the same Germanic base come meadow and aftermath.^{[9][5][6][16]}

Earliest recorded meaning

To cut down grass or grain with a scythe: before 899, in the Old English translations of Bede's Ecclesiastical History and of Orosius.^[5][4] Barnhart finds Middle English mowen probably about 1150.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The verb was used figuratively from the late 12th century.^[4] From about 1300, in Havelok, it was also used of sweeping down men in battle as if with a scythe.^[4][5] Mow down, to kill indiscriminately or in great numbers, is recorded before 1522, in Gavin Douglas's Aeneid.^[4] From 1638 to 1889 mow was a humorous word for shaving off a beard,^[4] and in cricket it has meant hitting the ball to leg with a sweeping stroke since 1844.^[4] The strong past tense gave way to mowed from the 16th century on,^[4] mown and mowed are both current as past participles.^[4] A machine has done the cutting more and more since the 19th century, and a mow is now also the act of mowing a lawn (1975).^[4][9] Barnhart notes that the agent noun mower is found before 1325, and earlier still as the surname Mawere.^[5]

Timeline

• before 899 – to cut down grass or grain; to cut the crop of a field.^[5][4]
• c. 1150 – Middle English mowen.^[5]
• c. 1300 – to sweep down men in battle.^[4][5]
• before 1522 – mow down, to kill in great numbers.^[4]
• 1638 – to shave off a beard (humorous, obsolete by 1889).^[4]
• 1844 – cricket, to hit the ball to leg with a sweeping stroke.^[4]
• 1975 – noun, an act of mowing.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut down grass or crops with a scythe or a machine.^[14][3][4]
2. To cut the grass or crop of an area: We mow the back lawn on Saturdays.^[14][3][4]
3. mow down: to kill or knock down people in large numbers, as with gunfire.^[4][14]
4. (cricket) To hit the ball to leg with a sweeping, unorthodox stroke.^[4][9]

Noun

1. An act of mowing, especially of a lawn.^[4][9]

Word family

• mower
• unmowed

mow³ grimace

Pronunciation

• UK: /məʊ/^[1]
• US: /moʊ/^[1]

Etymology

The word for a grimace is inherited from Middle English moue, also mowe,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French mouwe, also moe,^[4][3] which is recorded from the late 12th century in Old French in a phrase meaning to pull a face; modern French has moue.^[4][16] It probably comes from an unrecorded Frankish cognate of Middle Dutch mouwe (“grimace; protruding lip”);^[4][3][17] Wiktionary reconstructs the Frankish word as *mauwa (“pout, protruding lip”).^[1] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and Collins allow that the English word may come directly from Middle Dutch, which may itself be the source of the French word.^[6][9][14] Klein thinks the word probably imitative.^[18] The same French word was borrowed again as moue.^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A grimace, especially a derisive one: about 1330, in a political song.^[4] Hoad dates the noun to the 14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word also meant a gibe or taunt, and maken a moue was to make a face or laugh derisively.^[2] The verb, to make faces, appears about 1425 in Lydgate's Troy Book,^[4][2] often paired with mock or mop: mocks and mows and mops and mows were set phrases from the early 16th century.^[4][9] In Scots a mow was also a trick or jest (from Gower, before 1393), and in mows meant in jest.^[4][9] The word is now archaic and literary,^[9][6] but in the 19th century the verb was still used in the dialects of Scotland and northern England.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – a grimace.^[4]
• before 1393 – Scots, a trick or jest.^[4]
• c. 1425 – verb, to make a face, in Lydgate.^[4][2]
• 1508 – mows and mocks.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) A grimace, especially a mocking one.^[3][9][4]

Verb

1. (archaic) To make faces; to grimace.^[3][9][4]