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sow

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English has two words spelled sow, both going back to Old English: the noun for a female pig and the verb meaning to plant seed.[1][2][3]

sow1 female pig

Pronunciation

Etymology

The female pig is inherited from Middle English sowe, earlier suwe,[3][2][5] inherited from Old English sugu and the related sū,[2][6][7][8] which gradually fell together.[2] Sugu is from Proto-Germanic *sugō,[4][9] and is cognate with Old Saxon suga, Dutch zeug and Norwegian dialect sugga;[2][8][9][10] sū is cognate with Old High German sū, German Sau and Old Norse sýr.[2][8][5] Outside Germanic they are related to Latin sūs (“pig”), Ancient Greek ὗς (hûs, “pig”), Avestan hū (“wild boar”), Sanskrit सूकर (sūkará, “wild boar, swine”), Old Irish socc (“snout; ploughshare”) and Welsh hwch (“sow”).[2][3][5][11][4] All go back to Proto-Indo-European *sū- (“pig”),[6][1][2] which Klein, Etymonline and Ayto think may imitate the noise a pig makes.[5][11][1] The same stem is in swine.[8][1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An adult female pig: Barnhart dates Old English sugu to before 800,[2] and the OED's first example is from the Corpus Glossary, where it glosses Latin scrofa.[8][7] In Middle English it is suhe in the Ancrene Riwle, before 1200, and souwe or sowe about 1300.[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides the animal, the word was used from 1297 for a movable roofed shed that protected soldiers attacking the walls of a besieged town.[8][3][12] From the 15th century it also named a large oblong mass of metal from a smelting furnace, of lead from 1481 and of iron from 1539;[8] Weekley compares the parallel use of pig, and Hoad thinks the sense was probably taken from Dutch.[8][12][13] It was used for a woodlouse from before 1500,[8][11] hence sowbug, recorded from 1750.[11] As a term of abuse, especially for a fat or slovenly woman, it dates from 1508,[8][11] and Green's Dictionary of Slang has it from 1533.[14] Proverbial phrases such as to take the wrong sow by the ear go back to John Heywood's collection of proverbs of 1546.[8] In Scotland and the north of England sow was also a large rectangular stack of hay or straw.[15]

Timeline

  • before 800 – Old English sugu, a female pig.[2]
  • before 1200 – suhe, in the Ancrene Riwle.[2]
  • 1297 – a movable shed protecting besiegers.[8]
  • 1481 – an oblong mass of lead from the furnace; of iron from 1539.[8]
  • before 1500 – a woodlouse.[8]
  • 1508 – a term of abuse, especially for a woman.[8]
  • 1546 – to take the wrong sow by the ear.[8]
  • 1750 – sowbug.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An adult female pig, especially one that has had a litter; compare gilt and boar.[3][16][8]
  2. The adult female of certain other animals, such as the cavy.[3]
  3. A fat, dirty or slovenly woman, used as an insult.[3][8]
  4. A channel that carries molten metal to the moulds in a pig bed, or a large mass of metal cast in such a mould; compare pig.[3][8]
  5. A movable roofed shed that protected soldiers attacking the walls of a fortress.[3][8][12]
  6. (dialect) A woodlouse.[3][8]

Word family

  • sowbelly
  • sowbread
  • sowbug

sow2 to plant seed

Pronunciation

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English sowen,[3][2][17] inherited from Old English sāwan,[8][11][2][6][7] a strong verb,[11][7] from Proto-Germanic *sēaną.[4][18][9] It is cognate with Old Saxon sāian, Old High German sāwen, Dutch zaaien, German säen, Old Norse sá and Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌹𐌰𐌽 (saian).[2][8][5][18] Outside Germanic it is related to Latin serō (“to sow”) and Lithuanian sėti (“to sow”),[8][3][9][10] from Proto-Indo-European *sē- (“to sow”),[11][6][1][5] the root also of seed, semen and season.[11][1] The original reduplicating past survives in Gothic and Old Norse; in English the past tense has become weak, while the past participle often keeps the strong form.[8][18]

Earliest recorded meaning

To scatter seed on the ground so that it grows: Barnhart dates Old English sāwan to before 830,[2] and the OED's first examples are in the Vespasian Psalter.[8] In Middle English it appears as sowen probably about 1150.[2]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, to spread or disseminate, was already Old English, used by King Alfred in his translation of Boethius.[8][11][19] Sowing is set against reaping in figurative uses from 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible.[8] From the mid-14th century the verb was used of scattering other things than seed, while from about 1400 it was used of covering a place thickly with something, now mostly in the past participle (sown with stars).[11][8] A rare Middle English sense, to beget a child, was used from about 1250 to 1400.[8] In the 20th century the verb was applied to laying mines, especially dropping them from aircraft into the sea (1939).[8] The noun sowing machine dates from 1812.[11] In Scots and Yorkshire dialect sow out or sow down meant to lay arable land down with grass seed.[15]

Timeline

  • before 830 – Old English sāwan, to plant seed.[2]
  • Old English – figurative, to spread or disseminate, in King Alfred's Boethius.[8]
  • c. 1150 – Middle English sowen.[2]
  • c. 1250 – to beget (obsolete by 1400).[8]
  • 1382 – sowing contrasted with reaping, in the Wycliffite Bible.[8]
  • c. 1400 – to cover thickly with something.[8]
  • 1812 – sowing machine.[11]
  • 1939 – to lay mines.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To plant or scatter seed on or in the ground so that it grows: They sowed barley in the lower field.[3][16][8]
  2. To plant seed in a piece of land: The meadow was sown with clover.[3][16][8]
  3. To introduce or spread something, especially something harmful: to sow doubt, to sow discord.[3][16][8]
  4. To scatter or strew; to cover thickly, as if with seed.[3][8]
  5. To lay explosive mines.[8]

Word family

  • sower
  • sowable
  • resow
  • self-sown

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  8. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  12. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  18. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  19. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press