Snew

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic past tense of the verb meaning to fall as frozen white flakes from the sky
2. An old-fashioned form of the past tense of the verb describing frozen precipitation drifting down from clouds
3. Dated past-tense form of the verb for the act of frozen flakes falling from the sky in winter

Etymology: "Snew" is an archaic past form of "snow" used as a verb, meaning to fall as snow or to scatter something like snow. It developed from Middle English "snewen," which came from Old English "snīwan," meaning "to snow." The Old English verb traces back to Proto-Germanic "*snīwaną," the common ancestor of the Germanic languages, and further to a Proto-Indo-European root, so the word has been part of the language since its earliest recorded stages. Because "snew" is the verb form of "snow," the two words share one root, and "snew" simply preserves the older verbal use that modern English has largely replaced with "snowed."