Etymology

winnow

W4I1N1N1O1W4

Today it means: To subject (granular material, especially food grain) to a current of air separating heavier and lighter components, as grain from chaff. Full definition →

Middle English wyndwen ← Old English windwian ← Proto-West Germanic *windwōn
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*wē-“to winnow, thresh”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*windwōną
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*windwōn
  4. Old English · inherited fromwindwian“to winnow, fan, ventilate”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromwyndwen
  6. English todaywinnow

From Middle English wyndwen, from Old English windwian (“to winnow, fan, ventilate”), from Proto-West Germanic *windwōn, from Proto-Germanic *windwōną, *winþijaną (“to throw about, winnow”), from Proto-Indo-European *wē- (“to winnow, thresh”). Cognate with West Frisian wynje (“to winnow”), dialectal Dutch winden, winnen (“to winnow”), Middle High German winden (“to winnow”), Icelandic vinsa (“to pick out, weed”), Latin vannus (“a winnowing basket”). See fan, van.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.