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Etymology and origin of the English word tow

Pronunciation

  • /təʊ/, /toʊ/[1]

tow1 to pull; the act of pulling

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
Old English
Inherited from
Old English togian via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *deuk-

Etymology

The verb meaning to pull is inherited from Middle English touen, also togen and towen,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English togian (“to drag, pull”),[5][4][3][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *tugōną.[4][3][8] It is cognate with Old Frisian togia (“to pull about”), Middle Low German togen, Old High German zogōn (“to draw, tug, drag”) and Old Norse toga (“to draw, pull”),[3][5][9][10][11] and is related to tēon (“to draw”), Old High German ziohan, German ziehen (“to pull, draw”) and Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌿𐌷𐌰𐌽 (tiuhan, “to draw, pull”).[3][10][4][12] Its Germanic base, the weak grade of the root of that Old English verb, also gave team and tug.[8][5][9] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *deuk- (“to lead”), the root of Latin dūcō (“to lead”), and so of conduct and duke.[4][3][7][8][13] Barnhart explains the change of Middle English ⟨-og-⟩ to ⟨-ow-⟩ by the same shift seen earlier in bow.[3] The noun, a rope used for towing and then the act of towing, is formed from the verb.[5][3][4][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To draw by force, to pull or drag: in Old English, in a homily on Saint Margaret, where the enemies of God dragged the maiden out of the city;[5][6] Barnhart dates the Old English verb to about 1000 and the Middle English togen to about 1300.[3]

Semantic evolution

The general sense "to drag" died out in the late 16th century, while the special sense, to draw a vessel through the water by a rope, recorded from 1391, became the main one.[5][4][14] The Middle English verb could also mean to bring or convey someone to a place.[2][5] The noun, a rope for towing, is first recorded in 1600 in Hakluyt's Voyages, and the act of towing in 1622;[5][3] in tow, of a vessel being towed, was extended from 1722 to a person taken under someone's guidance or simply accompanying them.[5][4] In 1868 the verb was used of pulling a vehicle along on a rope or cable, and the maritime sense was thus transferred to road vehicles,[5][4] and in the 20th century tow was also a ski tow (1937)[5] and, in athletics, the pulling along of other runners by a fast pace (1959).[5][14] In motor racing, informally, a tow is the advantage taken of another car's slipstream.[15] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as to draw by a rope, particularly through the water.[16] In Scottish and English dialect a tow-chain was a strong chain for hauling timber.[17] In 1940s American slang, to tow someone was to buy them drinks.[18]

Timeline

  • Old English – togian, to drag, pull by force.[5][6]
  • c. 1300 – Middle English togen, in a version of Layamon's chronicle.[3]
  • c. 1390 – to convey, carry (now obsolete).[5]
  • 1391 – to draw a vessel on the water by a rope.[5]
  • 1596 – Scottish, to draw up or let down with a rope.[5]
  • 1600 – noun, a rope used for towing.[5][3]
  • 1622 – the act of towing, in tow.[5][3]
  • 1663 – humorous, to drag a person along.[5]
  • 1722 – figurative, to take in tow, to take under one's guidance.[5]
  • 1805 – a vessel taken in tow.[5]
  • 1868 – to pull a vehicle along by a rope or cable.[5]
  • 1874 – a vessel that tows, a tug.[5][4]
  • 1937 – a ski tow.[5]
  • 1959 – athletics, to bring other runners along by setting a fast pace.[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To pull a vehicle, boat or other object along behind, especially by a rope, cable or bar: A tractor towed the stranded van out of the ditch.
  2. To drag a person or animal along behind one, often used humorously: She towed her little brother through the crowded market.
  3. To move forward by towing or by being towed.

Noun

  1. The act or an instance of towing, or the state of being towed.
  2. Something that is towed, such as a string of barges.
  3. A rope, chain or other thing used for towing.
  4. in tow: being towed; also, of a person, accompanying someone or in their charge: He arrived with his three children in tow.
  5. A ski tow.
  6. (informal, motor racing) The advantage gained by driving in another car's slipstream.

Word family

  • towable
  • towability
  • towage
  • towaway
  • towboat
  • towline
  • aerotow

tow2 flax or hemp fibre

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1377, Piers Plowman
Inherited from
Old English tow- via Middle English

Etymology

The flax fibre is inherited from Middle English tou,[2][4] probably inherited from Old English tow- (“spinning”), an element found only in compounds such as towlīc (“fit for spinning”), towcræft (“spinning”) and towhūs (“spinning-house”).[4][2][14][6][19][20] The OED calls the origin doubtful, and links the word with Old Norse tó (“uncleansed wool or flax”), which it connects only doubtfully with the Old English element and with Middle Dutch touwen (“to knit, weave”).[5] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford relate it to Middle Low German touw, Old Saxon tou and the Old Norse word,[9][14] and Ayto takes it as a borrowing from the Middle Low German word.[8] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster compare Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰𐌽 (taujan, “to do, make”), and Etymonline traces the group to Proto-Germanic *taw- (“to manufacture”), the source of taw;[4][12] Barnhart and Ayto relate it to tool.[3][8] Weekley noted that German Werg (“tow”) and Werk (“work”) are related in the same way, tow being the raw material for work.[20]

Earliest recorded meaning

Flax or hemp fibre prepared for spinning: 1377, in Langland's Piers Plowman;[5][3] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century, in the form tou.[4] The OED thinks the first sense may have been textile fibre in general.[5][4]

Semantic evolution

From 1530 the word was used more strictly of the short, coarse fibres separated by heckling from the long fine fibres called line.[5][14] In Middle English tow was used for caulking, for packing wounds and as kindling, and served as a byword for something that burns easily.[2][4] The figurative phrase to have tow on one's rock (one's distaff), to have business to attend to, is recorded from Chaucer's Miller's Tale.[5][14] The word was used as an adjective, "made of tow", from 1601,[3] and the American towhead, a person with very pale hair, dates from 1830.[3] The verb tow, to comb or card flax, is recorded from 1615.[5][14] In the 20th century tow was extended to a bundle of untwisted natural or man-made fibres (1950).[5][14] In the slang of the 19th century, money was called tow because, like tow, it burns quickly.[18] Scottish and northern English dialect had compounds such as tow-card, a card for carding flax.[17]

Timeline

  • 1377 – flax or hemp fibre prepared for spinning.[5]
  • c. 1400 – the unworked stem or fibre of flax (now obsolete).[5]
  • c. 1405 – figurative, to have tow on one's rock, in Chaucer.[5]
  • 1530 – the short, coarse fibres separated from the long ones.[5]
  • 1601 – adjective, made of tow.[3]
  • 1615 – verb, to comb or card flax.[5]
  • 1830 – towhead, in American English.[3]
  • 1848 – slang, money.[18]
  • 1950 – a bundle of untwisted fibres.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The short, coarse, broken fibres of flax, hemp or jute, separated in scutching or heckling and used for yarn, twine and stuffing.
  2. A loose bundle of untwisted natural or man-made filaments, cut up to make staple fibre.

Adjective

  1. Made of tow: a tow sack.
  2. tow-coloured, of hair: very pale.

Word family

  • towhead
  • towheaded
  • towy

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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 p q r s 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  12. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  17. ^ 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)
  18. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  19. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  20. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Tow.” Etymologically, 24 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/tow. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

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