sow
pronunciation
How to pronounce sow in British English:
UK [səʊ , saʊ]
How to pronounce sow in American English:
US [soʊ , saʊ]
-
- Noun:
- an adult female hog
-
- Verb:
- place (seeds) in or on the ground for future growth
- introduce into an environment
- place seeds in or on (the ground)
Word Origin
- sow
- sow: English has two words sow, both of which go back to the Old English period. The verb, ‘put seeds in the ground’, comes from a prehistoric Germanic *sǣjan, which also produced German säen, Dutch zaaien, Swedish så, and Danish saa. It was formed from the base *sǣ- (source of English seed), which goes back ultimately to Indo-European *sē- (source of English season, semen, etc). Sow ‘female pig’ is descended from an Indo-European base *su- (possibly imitative of the noise made by a pig), which also produced Greek hus ‘pig’ (whose feminine form húaina is the source of English hyena [16]), Latin sūs ‘pig’, German sau ‘sow’, and English swine.=> season, seed, semen; hyena, swine
- sow (v.)
- Old English sawan "to scatter seed upon the ground or plant it in the earth, disseminate" (class VII strong verb; past tense seow, past participle sawen), from Proto-Germanic *sean (cognates: Old Norse sa, Old Saxon saian, Middle Dutch sayen, Dutch zaaien, Old High German sawen, German säen, Gothic saian), from PIE root *se- (1) "to sow" (cognates: Latin sero, past tense sevi, past participle satum "to sow;" Old Church Slavonic sejo, sejati; Lithuanian seju, seti "to sow"), source of semen, season (n.), seed (n.), etc. Figurative sense was in Old English.
- sow (n.)
- Old English sugu, su "female of the swine," from Proto-Germanic *su- (cognates: Old Saxon, Old High German su, German Sau, Dutch zeug, Old Norse syr), from PIE root *su- (cognates: Sanskrit sukarah "wild boar, swine;" Avestan hu "wild boar;" Greek hys "swine;" Latin sus "swine," swinus "pertaining to swine;" Old Church Slavonic svinija "swine;" Lettish sivens "young pig;" Welsh hucc, Irish suig "swine; Old Irish socc "snout, plowshare"), possibly imitative of pig noise, a notion reinforced by the fact that Sanskrit sukharah means "maker of (the sound) 'su.' " Related to swine. As a term of abuse for a woman, attested from c. 1500. Sow-bug "hog louse" is from 1750.
Example
- 1. What you harvest is determined by what you sow .
- 2. Sow a seed and the earth will yield you a flower .
- 3. That is , many people sow a lot but reap nothing .
- 4. Where there is hatred , let me sow love ;
- 5. Some think that openness allowed asia 's excess savings to flow to the united states and sow the seeds of financial instability .