Ceowan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic Old English verb meaning to chew food by grinding it with the teeth
2. A obsolete Old English word for chewing or gnawing something with the teeth
3. Old English term describing the act of masticating food between the teeth

Etymology: Old English "ceowan" meant "to chew," and it is the ancestor of the modern English verb "chew." Its story is mostly one of sound change rather than meaning change: across the centuries the initial "c" softened, the vowel shifted, and the spelling drifted until "ceowan" became "chewen" in Middle English and then "chew" by the early modern period. The word's meaning has stayed remarkably stable, with the same sense of working food between the teeth. The word belongs to a Germanic family of verbs for chewing. Its relatives include Old High German "kiuwan" and Old Norse "kjóa," which point to a common Proto-Germanic ancestor. Because these cognates all share the same basic sense, the verb is a good example of how core vocabulary about the body and eating tends to survive largely unchanged through the millennium separating Old English from our own time.

Synonyms: chew, masticate