chow

chow · noun, verb¹

1. Chinese Pidgin English · derived fromchow-chow
2. English todaychow

Shortened from chow-chow, from Chinese Pidgin English chow-chow. Compare Macanese chau-cháu. See also English chow fun, chow mein, etc.

chow · noun²

1. Chinese · borrowed from州
2. English todaychow

Borrowed from Chinese 州 (zhōu).

chow · noun, verb³

Phono-semantic matching of Chinese 吃 (chī, literally “to eat”), influenced by the “food” sense of Etymology 1 above.

Chow · proper noun, noun⁴

1. Cantonese · borrowed from周
2. English todayChow

From Cantonese 周 (zau¹).

Words from the same roots