hay
pronunciation
How to pronounce hay in British English:
UK [heɪ]
How to pronounce hay in American English:
US [heɪ]
-
- Noun:
- grass mowed and cured for use as fodder
Word Origin
- hay
- hay: [OE] Etymologically, hay is ‘that which is cut down’. It comes ultimately from the prehistoric Germanic verb *khauwan, source also of English hew, which was formed from the Indo-European base *kou-, *kow-. From it was derived the noun *khaujam, which has become German hau, Dutch hooi, Swedish and Danish hä, and English hay – ‘grass cut down and dried’.Other English descendants of Germanic *khauwan ‘cut down’ are haggle [16], which originally meant ‘hack, mutilate’ and was derived from an earlier hag ‘cut’, a borrowing from Old Norse höggva ‘cut’; and hoe [14], which comes via Old French houe from Frankish *hauwa ‘cut’.=> haggle, hew, hoe
- hay (n.)
- "grass mown," Old English heg (Anglian), hieg, hig (West Saxon) "grass cut or mown for fodder," from Proto-Germanic *haujam (cognates: Old Norse hey, Old Frisian ha, Middle Dutch hoy, German Heu, Gothic hawi "hay"), literally "that which is cut," or "that which can be mowed," from PIE *kau- "to hew, strike" (cognates: Old English heawan "to cut;" see hew). Slang phrase hit the hay (pre-1880) was originally "to sleep in a barn;" hay in the general figurative sense of "bedding" is from 1903; roll in the hay (n.) is from 1945.
Example
- 1. The ground is scattered with pine needles and hay .
- 2. I 'll find someone to help you get the hay back on the wagon .
- 3. It eats grass and hay and is extremely muscular and fast .
- 4. Afterward , the farmers set fire to barrels of hay and piles of tires .
- 5. He was coated with sawdust and filled with hay for hungry farm animals .