farrow
UK /ˈfæɹəʊ/ · US /ˈfæɹoʊ/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun
Forms farrows farrowing farrowed
- noun A litter of piglets.
- verb To give birth to (a litter of piglets).
- adjective (of cows) Not pregnant; not producing young (not calving) in a given season or year; barren.
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun A former community in Vulcan County, Alberta, Canada.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English *farow, *fargh (found only in the plural faren), from Old English fearh (“piglet”), from Proto-West Germanic *farh, from Proto-Germanic *farhaz, from Proto-Indo-European *pórḱos, from *perḱ- (“to dig”).
See also Old High German farah, Middle Irish orc (“piglet”), Latin porcus, Proto-Slavic *porsę (“pig, piglet”), Lithuanian par̃šas, Avestan: 𐬞𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬯𐬀 (pər^əsa). Doublet of pork.
From Middle English farwen, from the noun.
Cognate with Old English fearr (“bull”).
Hypercorrected form of Farrar, where the original ending -ar was regarded as an error and consequently changed to -ow.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A little of pigs. Shak.
- verb To bring forth (young); --said only of swine. Tusser.
- adjective Not producing young in a given season or year; --said only of cows.
Etymology [AS. fearh a little pig; a akin to OHG. farh, farah, pig, dim. farheli little pig, G. fercel, D. varken pig, Lith. parszas OIr. orc,L. porcus, Gr. Pork.]
Etymology [Cf. Scot. ferry cow a cow that is not with calf, D. vaarkoe, vaars, heifer, G. färse, AS. fearr bull, G. farre. Cf. Heifer.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “farrow”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details