winnow

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English windwen, later also winewen,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English windwian (“to fan, winnow”),^[5][6][7][8] a derivative of the word that gave wind;^[5][9][10] the Germanic verb is reconstructed as Proto-Germanic *windwōną.^[1] The American Heritage Dictionary calls the later form an alteration of the earlier.^[11] The OED analyses the Old English verb as a variant of the Germanic base of wind, apparently with a labial extension whose exact nature is unclear.^[12] It compares Gothic 𐌳𐌹𐍃𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌸𐌾𐌰𐌽 (diswinþjan, “to destroy, apparently first to disperse by winnowing”) and Old Norse vinza (“to winnow”),^[12][5][10] which have a different stem extension, and Old Saxon windon and Old High German wintōn (“to fan, winnow”), which have none.^[12][8] The same idea lies behind Latin ventilō (“to fan, winnow”), the source of ventilate, from ventus (“wind”).^[9][13][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To separate or drive off lighter particles by a current of air, with a figurative use as early as the Vespasian Psalter, before 830, which glosses Latin ventilavimus with windwiaþ of driving off enemies.^[12][4][14] Exposing grain to the wind is recorded in Old English too, in the Old English Martyrology,^[12] and Bosworth–Toller quotes Hé corn ðærsc and windwode, he threshed and winnowed corn.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The farm task gave the word nearly all its later range.^[12] Figurative separation of the good from the bad, or sifting and examining, appears before 1382 in the Wycliffite Bible,^[12][4][5] and goes back in a sense to the Psalter's enemies.^[4][14] The direction of the verb could also turn: at first the thing driven off was the object, but from before 1616, in Shakespeare's Cymbeline, it could be the valuable part that was kept, now especially with out.^[12] From the motion of a winnowing fan came the sense of beating the air with wings or flapping them (1579),^[12] as in Milton's line "winnows the buxom air", which Johnson (1755) quotes under "to fan; to beat as with wings".^[15] Poets went on to use it for wafting (1764, Goldsmith) and for a breeze fanning something (1801, Campbell).^[12] The noun, a device for winnowing, is recorded from 1580,^[12][3][4] though Etymonline finds it by the 1570s,^[5] and the act of winnowing or a similar motion from 1802, in Coleridge.^[12][4] In dialect, Oxfordshire speakers said of a draught that it blew enough to winnow taters, and in the north-east of Scotland going through the motions of winnowing in a barn at Hallowe'en was said to summon the apparition of a future husband.^[16]

Timeline

• before 830 – to separate or drive off lighter particles; also of enemies, in the Vespasian Psalter.^[12][4]
• c. 1175 – intransitive, in the Ormulum, as winndwenn.^[12][14]
• before 1382 – figurative, to sift or separate, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[12][4]
• 1579 – to brandish (now obsolete), to beat the air with wings.^[12]
• 1580 – noun, a device for winnowing.^[12][3][4]
• before 1616 – to separate out the valuable part.^[12]
• 1764 – to waft, in poetry.^[12]
• 1801 – of the air, to fan with a breeze, to blow in gusts.^[12]
• 1802 – noun, an act of winnowing or a motion resembling it.^[12][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To separate grain from chaff with a wind or current of air: They winnowed the barley on the threshing floor.^[17][3][12]
2. To get rid of what is unwanted, often with out: The editor winnowed out the weakest essays.^[3][12]
3. To sift or examine something in order to pick out what is best: The panel winnowed the applicants down to five.^[17][3][12]
4. (archaic) To beat the air with wings; to flap.^[17][12][15]
5. (rare) To blow on; to fan.^[17][12]

Noun

1. A device for winnowing grain.^[17][3][12]
2. The act of winnowing, or a motion like it, such as the sweep of wings.^[17][3][6]

Word family

• winnower

Related words

• wind
• ventilate
• windle

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins