Hay

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /heɪ/

Definitions

1. A type of forage created from sun-dried grass that serves as feed for herbivorous animals and is often stored in bales for preservation
2. A product composed of cut and dried grasses that provides nutrition for livestock and is commonly used as bedding material in farming
3. Grass that has been cut, dried, and stored as food for grazing animals ; grass prepared by cutting and drying, used either as feed or as bedding for farm animals

Etymology: Hay is an old word, and its core meaning has barely moved in over a thousand years. It descends from a Germanic root, reconstructed as "hawwaną", meaning "to hew, cut down", so the grass was named for the act of cutting it. Its Gothic relative "hawi" meant "grass, hay", and cognates survive across the Germanic languages, from Dutch "hooi" and German "Heu" to Icelandic "hey" and Swedish "hö". The word shares its root with "hew" and the crop it names with the mowing that produced it. The same ancient verb gave English a word for the field-crop itself rather than the tool or the act, which is why the noun is so plainly agricultural.

Synonyms: fodder, forage