Rowen

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɹaʊən/

Definitions

1. The word describes a young plant or tree that is still growing and has not reached maturity, which may also represent early development stages in plant life or serve as a term for related green foliage characteristics
2. This term refers to a juvenile stage in the life cycle of plants, primarily trees or shrubs, while also encompassing aspects of their developing leaves and similar features
3. A young stage in the lifecycle of flora, particularly trees or shrubs, indicating early growth or developing foliage traits

Etymology: Before it named a crop, this word meant a return. It comes from Old French "regain", "an increase", formed from "re-" and "gaigner", "to till, win". The Anglo-Norman "rewain" and Middle English "rewayn" carried that sense into English, so the idea was of something gained back from the land. The modern form is the result of later reshaping. The final "-ən" sound was hard to fit into English, so speakers replaced it with more familiar endings, giving the variants "rowet" and "rowing". "Roughing" is a folk-style alteration that seems to rely on an older pronunciation of "rough" as "ˈɹaʊ" with the stress and vowel of that word.