Etymology

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Today it means: To make foul or dirty; begrime as with the smut of coal; blacken. Full definition →

Middle English *colwen ← Old English *colgian ← Proto-West Germanic *koligōn
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*koligōn“to make black as coal, blacken with coal”
  2. Old English · inherited from*colgian
  3. Middle English · inherited from*colwen
  4. English todaycollow

From Middle English *colwen, *colȝen (attested in colwed, colwinge), from Old English *colgian, from Proto-West Germanic *koligōn (“to make black as coal, blacken with coal”).

Words from the same roots

Old English*colgian all →

colly

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.