Etymology

farrow

farr·ow
F4A1R1R1O1W4

Today it means: A litter of piglets. Full definition →

Middle English *farow ← Old English fearh ← Proto-West Germanic *farh
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farrow · noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*perḱ-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*pórḱos
  3. Proto-Germanic*farhaz
  4. Proto-West Germanic*farh
  5. Old Englishfearh
  6. Middle English*farow
  7. English todayfarrow

From Middle English *farow, *fargh (found only in the plural faren), from Old English fearh (“piglet”), from Proto-West Germanic *farh, from Proto-Germanic *farhaz, from Proto-Indo-European *pórḱos, from *perḱ- (“to dig”). See also Old High German farah, Middle Irish orc (“piglet”), Latin porcus, Proto-Slavic *porsę (“pig, piglet”), Lithuanian par̃šas, Avestan: 𐬞𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬯𐬀 (pər^əsa). Doublet of pork.

farrow · verb2

  1. Middle English · derived fromfarwen
  2. English todayfarrow

From Middle English farwen, from the noun.

farrow · adjective3

Cognate with Old English fearr (“bull”).

Farrow · proper noun4

Hypercorrected form of Farrar, where the original ending -ar was regarded as an error and consequently changed to -ow.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishfearh all →

Fairey

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.