Well, I clicked the ‘random word’ button about 10 times, but this is suffeccently random.
Copyright © Oxford University Press 2006
mow, n.1
DRAFT REVISION Mar. 2003
Now chiefly regional.Brit. /ma{shtu}/, U.S. /ma{shtu}/ Forms: OE muga, muha, muwa, eME mu{ygh}e, (in compounds) mug-, mugh-, ME moghe, mou, moue, mughe, ME, 16-17 mough, ME-16, (19- (U.S.)) mowe, ME- mow, 15 moow, moowe, mowgh, mowghe, 15-16 mew, 17 (in compounds) maw-; Eng. regional 18 (north.) mu’, 18- mew, mou, (north.) moo; Sc. pre-17, 18- mowe, pre-17 17- mow, 17- mou, 18 mou’, moue, 19- moo; also Welsh English 19- mie; Irish English (north.) 19- mou, mow. [Cognate with Old Icelandic múgi swathe, crowd (also múgr crowd, common people, mob), Norwegian (Nynorsk) muge heap, pile, crowd, flock (also Bokmål mug crowd, flock), Old Swedish moghe crowd, common people (also mogher), of uncertain origin; perh. < the same Indo-European base as Byzantine Greek {mu}{guacu}{kappa}{omega}{nu} heap. Cf. also (as the second element in compounds with cognates of ALL a.) Old Icelandic almúgi common people, Norwegian allmuge common people, Old Swedish almoghe common people (Swedish allmoge country people, peasantry), Old Danish almuge common people (Danish almue country people, peasantry).
The word is not securely attested in continental West Germanic languages, although a possible cognate may be represented by the first element of Old High German m{umac}werf mole (see MOULDWARP n. and discussion s.v.).
Possible early borrowing from Germanic languages may perh. be indicated by post-classical Latin muga mound, heap (in an undated medieval Spanish source, later than the 11th cent.; cf. Spanish muga landmark, pile (1734 in sense ‘boundary post’; although an alternative etymology derives this from Basque muga boundary)), mugium haystack (1334 in one isolated attestation in a north Italian source).]
I. Simple uses.
1. a. A stack of hay, corn, beans, peas, etc.; esp. a heap of grain or hay in a barn. Also: the quantity of grain or hay stacked in one bay of a barn. Cf. HAY-MOW n.
eOE Corpus Gloss. 10/2 Aceruus, muha. eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker Lat.-Old Eng. Gloss. in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 5 Aceruum, muwan. OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Exod. (Claud.) xxii. 6 Gyf fyr bærne mugan o{edh}{edh}e standende æceras. c1275 (?a1200) LA{ygh}AMON Brut (Calig.) 29280, {Th}a sparwen..i {th}an eouesen..grupen, swa heo duden in {th}en mu{ygh}en. ?a1300 Iacob & Iosep 357 Bernes ful riche & mowen ful heye, Muche was {th}e blisse after here swinke. a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 6760 Thorn feld or corn or mou or stak. c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) 4434 {Th}an as a Mare at a moghe {ygh}oure mawis {ygh}e fill. ?c1475 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add.) f. 83, A Mughe, archonicus. 1488 HARY Actis & Deidis Schir William Wallace XII. 339 A mow off corn he gyhyt thaim about. 1495 Trevisa’s Bartholomeus De Proprietatibus Rerum (de Worde) IV. i. 77 As it faryth in a wete mough of whete. 1523 J. FITZHERBERT Bk. Husbandry 25 For and it sweate not in the heycockes it wyll sweate in the mowe. 1539 in Wills & Admin. Knaresborough Court Rolls (1902) I. 58 The value of a mowghe of hay. 1573 T. TUSSER Fiue Hundreth Points Good Husb. (new ed.) (1878) 131 In gouing at haruest, learne skilfully how ech graine for to laie by it selfe on a mow. 1609 P. HOLLAND tr. A. Marcellinus Rom. Hist. 220 The whole mow or stacke being shaken was borne downe. 1678 R. WODROW Hist. II. 429 He and his servants went into the barn, in the one end of which was a mow of corn and in the other of bear. 1718 A. RAMSAY Christ’s-kirk on Green III. 30 But Lawrie he took out his Nap, Upon a Mow of Peas. 1787 W. H. MARSHALL Rural Econ. E. Norfolk (E.D.S.) II. 380 s.v. Gulph, A mow, or bay-full, in a barn. 1794 J. BILLINGSLEY Gen. View Agric. Somerset 188 It is very difficult to keep the mows on stathels free from them [sc. rats and mice]. 1844 H. STEPHENS Bk. of Farm II. 264 To pile up the sheaves as they are brought in into what are called mows, that is, the sheaves are placed in rows. 1863 H. W. LONGFELLOW Prelude iii, in Tales Wayside Inn 2 The barns display..their mows of hay. 1896 Daily News 19 Sept. 2/5 The stooks, locally called mows, present a mass of green shoots. 1907 St. Nicholas Sept. 978/1 ‘Be careful what you say,’ interrupted Chub, sliding down from the top of the mow. 1916 D. H. LAWRENCE Let. 5 Sept. (1962) 473 The corn stands in ‘mews’{em}small ricks. 1983 S. DONALDSON Gilden-fire 41 Ripe wheat rippled like sheets of gold in some of the fields; and in others cut hay was stacked into high fragrant mowes.
b. A place in a barn where hay or corn is heaped up.
a1643 J. SHUTE Judgement & Mercy (1645) iii. 65 If it [sc. wheat] be carried into the barne, God can make it mould in the mow. 1755 JOHNSON Dict. Eng. Lang., Mow, a loft or chamber where hay or corn is laid up. 1796 W. H. MARSHALL Rural Econ. Yorks. (ed. 2) II. 40 To prevent waste in the barn, the floor of the mow was covered with soft hay, which stops the running of the seed. 1856 G. HENDERSON Pop. Rhymes Berwick 91 They were engaged in carrying his corn from the stack in the barn-yard to the mow in the barn. 1884 West Sussex Gaz. 25 Sept. 4/8 Good spacious barn, asphalte floor, and mow. 1912 Scotsman 19 Jan. 10/3 The recess in the barn{em}the barn moo{em}where the sheaves of the grain stacks..are built up preparatory to being thrashed with the flail. 1977 Whig-Standard (Kingston, Ontario) 12 Apr. 5/1 All hay was harvested loose and stored in mows or lofts. 1992 Harrowsmith Aug. 25/1 My theory is that he intended to fill the mow in July and then walk along the top of the new hay.
{dag}2. More generally: a heap or pile of anything; a heap of earth, a mound, a hillock; (Sc.) a stack of peats. Obs. rare.
?1424 in J. A. Picton City of Liverpool: Select. Munic. Rec. (1883) (modernized text) I. 23 On a mow within the said town we saw the said Sir Richard. a1522 G. DOUGLAS tr. Virgil Æneid (1957) IV. ix. 69 Abufe the mowe the foirsaid bed was maid. 1681 W. ROBERTSON Phraseologia Generalis (1693) 899 A mow or heap, strues. a1779 D. GRAHAM Coll. Writings (1883) II. 15 Down came the bed with a great mou of peats. 1857 J. M. WILSON Hist. Tales Borders x. 67 Wham ye kissed sae snug last nicht ayont the peat-mou. 1862 R. YOUNG Eclogue Dorset Dial. 25, I thote if squire woud allow, I’d put they in a faggot mow.
II. Compounds.
3. {dag}mow-breast, {dag}-cutter, {dag}-maker, -side, -stack, -yard. mow-barton, a yard or enclosure containing mows; a stack-yard. {dag}mow floor Obs., the floor of a barn in which hay or corn is stored. mowheat rare, {dag}(a) hay or corn spoilt by being stacked damp or too green (obs.); (b) the rotting of hay or corn, caused by overheating and fermenting in the mow or stack (cf. MOWBURNING n.). mow-staddle, (a) the lower part of a stack of hay, corn, etc.; = STADDLE n. 3a; (b) the framework or stone on which a stack of hay, corn, etc., is built up; = STADDLE n. 3b.
1642 in J. S. Moore Goods & Chattels Forefathers (1976) 76 In the barne and *mowbartone 1 stacke of Corn. 1789 Trans. Soc. Arts 7 12 For [the] Fence of a Maw-Barton on the same Farm. 1895 W. RAYMOND Tryphena in Love i. 8 He looked upon..the cow-stalls and mow~barton full of yellow stacks. a1642 H. BEST Farming & Memorandum Bks. (1984) 78 Putte them into the hey-howse, and lette them lye att the *mowe-brest all night. 1779 Farmer’s Mag. Oct. 314 Stack-Tackle… 1 *Mow-cutter. 1868 Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 424 Making chimneys, so to speak, in the mow, by putting barrels on the *mow floor and drawing them up as the hay was stowed about them. 1828 W. CARR Dial. Craven (ed. 2), *Moo-het, the hay or corn heated in the stack or mow. 1896 P. A. BRUCE Econ. Hist. Virginia I. 453 Spontaneous combustion, mowheat, and the depreciation resulting from the entrance of sea water. 1766 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 9 117/2 Let the *mow-maker be provided with a quantity of salt. 1865 A. D. WHITNEY Gayworthys I. 240 Wealthy tossed down great trusses of hay to them from the *mowside. 1611 in J. S. Moore Clifton & Westbury Probate Inventories 1609-1761 (1981) 13 All the wood..one *mowe stacke with all other Timber. 1894 R. D. BLACKMORE Perlycross III. vi. 108 Mowstack, and oakwood, farmhouse, and abbey. 1235-52 in C. J. Elton Rentalia et Custumaria (1891) 140 Et debet habere *mugstathel et unum sedlep plenum de frumento. 1634 in J. S. Moore Clifton & Westbury Probate Inventories 1609-1761 (1981) 54 One pare of mow stathills of Freestone in the said Anthonie Hodges his keepinge. 1652 Will of M. Reeve (Somerset Ho.), The yeoting stone, the mowstadells. 1867 W. F. ROCK Jim an’ Nell 71 Witch ellem timbers vor mewstaddle. 1888 F. T. ELWORTHY W. Somerset Word-bk., Mow-staddle, the framework upon which a stack of corn is piled up. 1869 R. D. BLACKMORE Lorna Doone II. xi. 141 And here was our own *mow-yard, better filled than we could remember.