different between sow vs farm

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English sowe, from Old English sugu, from Proto-Germanic *sug? (compare West Frisian sûch, Dutch zeug, Low German Söög, German Sau, Swedish sugga, Norwegian sugge), from Proto-Indo-European *suh?kéh? (compare Welsh hwch (“pig”), Sanskrit ???? (s?kará, “swine, boar”)), from *suH- ‘pig’ (compare German Sau, Latin s?s, Tocharian B suwo, Ancient Greek ?? (hûs), Albanian thi, Avestan ????????? (h?, “boar”). See also swine.

Alternative forms

• (dial.): zew, soo

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sa?/
• Rhymes: -a?
• Homophone: sough

Noun

sow (plural sows or swine)

1. A female pig.
2. A female bear, she-bear.
3. A female guinea pig.
4. A channel that conducts molten metal to molds.
5. A mass of metal solidified in a mold.
   • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 160:

     In England, it was generally termed a 'sow', if the weight was above 10 cwts., if below, it was termed a 'pig' from which the present term 'pig iron' is derived.

6. (derogatory, slang) A contemptible, often fat woman.
7. A sowbug.
8. (military) A kind of covered shed, formerly used by besiegers in filling up and passing the ditch of a besieged place, sapping and mining the wall, etc.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Craig to this entry?)

Usage notes

The plural form swine is now obsolete in this sense.

Synonyms

• (mass of metal solidified in a mold): ingot
• (contemptible woman): bitch, cow

Derived terms

• make a silk purse of a sow's ear

Translations

See also

• boar
• hog
• pig

Etymology 2

From Middle English sowen, from Old English s?wan, from Proto-Germanic *s?an?, from Proto-Indo-European *seh?-. Compare Dutch zaaien, German säen, Danish så, Norwegian Bokmål så.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /s??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /so?/
• Rhymes: -??
• Homophones: seau, sew, so, soe, soh

Verb

sow (third-person singular simple present sows, present participle sowing, simple past sowed, past participle sown or sowed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds).

   When I had sown the field, the day's work was over.

   As you sow, so shall you reap.

2. (figuratively) To spread abroad; to propagate.

   • And sow dissension in the hearts of brothers.
3. (figuratively) To scatter over; to besprinkle.
   • 1677, Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature

     The intellectual faculty is a goodly field, […] and it is the worst husbandry in the world to sow it with trifles.

Synonyms

• plant, scatter

Derived terms

• besow
• intersow
• oversow
• reap what one sows
• sower
• sown
• sow one's wild oats
• sow the wind, reap the whirlwind

Translations

Anagrams

• OSW, OWS, W.O.s, WOs, wos

Middle English

Noun

sow

1. Alternative form of sowe

English

Pronunciation

• (US, Canada) enPR: färm, IPA^(key): /f???m/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /f??m/
• Rhymes: -??(?)m

Etymology 1

From Middle English ferme, farme (“rent, revenue, produce, factor, stewardship, meal, feast”), from Anglo-Norman ferme (“rent, lease, farm”), from Medieval Latin ferma, firma, from Old English feorm, fearm, farm (“provision, food, supplies, provisions supplied by a tenant or vassal to his lord, rent, possessions, stores, feast, entertainment, haven”), from Proto-Germanic *ferm? (“means of living, subsistence”), from Proto-Germanic *ferhw?, *ferhuz (“life force, body, being”), from Proto-Indo-European *perk?- (“life, force, strength, tree”).

Cognate with Scots ferm (“rent, farm”). Related also to Old English feorh (“life, spirit”), Old High German ferah (“life, body, being”), Icelandic fjör (“life, vitality, vigour, animation”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (fair?us, “the world”). Compare also Old English feormeh?m (“farm”), feormere (“purveyor, grocer”).

Old English feorm is the origin of Medieval Latin ferma, firma (“farm", also "feast”) (whence also Old French ferme, Occitan ferma), instead of the historically assumed derivation from unrelated Latin firma (“firm, solid”), which shares the same form. The sense of "rent, fixed payment", which was already present in the Old English word, may have been further strengthened due to resemblance to Latin firmitas (“security, surety”). Additionally, Old French ferme continued to shape the development of the English word throughout the Middle English period.

Alternative forms

• feorm (historical)
• ferme (obsolete)

Noun

farm (plural farms)

1. A place where agricultural and similar activities take place, especially the growing of crops or the raising of livestock.
2. A tract of land held on lease for the purpose of cultivation.
3. (usually in combination) A location used for an industrial purpose, having many similar structures

4. (computing) A group of coordinated servers.

5. (obsolete) Food; provisions; a meal.
6. (obsolete) A banquet; feast.
7. (obsolete) A fixed yearly amount (food, provisions, money, etc.) payable as rent or tax.
   • 1642, tr. J. Perkins, Profitable Bk. (new ed.) xi. §751. 329:

     If a man be bounden unto 1.s. in 100.l.£ to grant unto him the rent and farme of such a Mill.

   • 1700, J. Tyrrell, Gen. Hist. Eng. II. 814:

     All..Tythings shall stand at the old Farm, without any Increase.

   • 1767, W. Blackstone, Comm. Laws Eng. II. 320:

     The most usual and customary feorm or rent..must be reserved yearly on such lease.

8. (historical) A fixed yearly sum accepted from a person as a composition for taxes or other moneys which he is empowered to collect; also, a fixed charge imposed on a town, county, etc., in respect of a tax or taxes to be collected within its limits.
   • 1876, E. A. Freeman, Hist. Norman Conquest V. xxiv. 439:

     He [the Sheriff] paid into the Exchequer the fixed yearly sum which formed the farm of the shire.

9. (historical) The letting-out of public revenue to a ‘farmer’; the privilege of farming a tax or taxes.
   • 1885, Edwards in Encycl. Brit. XIX. 580:

     The first farm of postal income was made in 1672.

10. The body of farmers of public revenues.
    • 1786, T. Jefferson, Writings (1859) I. 568:

      They despair of a suppression of the Farm.

11. The condition of being let at a fixed rent; lease; a lease.
    • a1599, Spenser, View State Ireland in J. Ware Two Hist. Ireland (1633) 58:

      It is a great willfullnes in any such Land-lord to refuse to make any longer farmes unto their Tennants.

    • 1647, N. Bacon, Hist. Disc. Govt. 75:

      Thence the Leases so made were called Feormes or Farmes, which word signifieth Victuals.

    • 1818, W. Cruise, Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. (ed. 2) IV. 68:

      The words demise, lease, and to farm let, are the proper ones to constitute a lease.

Derived terms

Translations

Descendants

• ? German: Farm
• ? Portuguese: farme, farma

Verb

farm (third-person singular simple present farms, present participle farming, simple past and past participle farmed)

1. (intransitive) To work on a farm, especially in the growing and harvesting of crops.
2. (transitive) To devote (land) to farming.
3. (transitive) To grow (a particular crop).
4. To give up to another, as an estate, a business, the revenue, etc., on condition of receiving in return a percentage of what it yields; to farm out.
   • December 1, 1783, Edmund Burke, Speech on Mr. Fox's East-India Bill

     to farm their subjects and their duties toward these

5. (obsolete, transitive) To lease or let for an equivalent, e.g. land for a rent; to yield the use of to proceeds.
6. (obsolete, transitive) To take at a certain rent or rate.
   • 1886, The Fortnightly (volume 46, page 530)

     In Paris it is stated that nearly half the birth-rate of the city finds its way to nurses who farm babies in the suburbs.

7. (video games, chiefly online gaming) To engage in grinding (repetitive activity) in a particular area or against specific enemies for a particular drop or item.
   • 2004, "Doug Freyburger", Pudding Farming Requires Care (on newsgroup rec.games.roguelike.nethack)

     When you hit a black pudding with an iron weapon that does at least one point of damage there is a good chance it will divide into two black puddings of the same size (but half the hit points IIRC). […] When eaten black puddings confer several intrinsics so AC [armor class] is not the only potential benefit. […] Since black puddings are formidible^[sic] monsters for an inexperienced character, farming is also a good way to die.

   • 2010, Robert Alan Brookey, Hollywood Gamers (page 130)

     The practice of gold farming is controversial within gaming communities and violates the end user licensing agreements […]

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• agriculture
• north forty

References

Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

Further reading

• farm on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English fermen, from Old English feormian (“to clean, cleanse”), from Proto-West Germanic *furb?n (“to clean, polish, buff”). Doublet of furbish.

Verb

farm (third-person singular simple present farms, present participle farming, simple past and past participle farmed)

1. (Britain, dialectal) To cleanse; clean out; put in order; empty; empty out

   Farm out the stable and pigsty.

Anagrams

• AFRM

Dalmatian

Alternative forms

• fiarm

Etymology

From Latin firmus. Compare Italian fermo.

Adjective

farm

1. still, firm, steady, stationary

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

farm

1. first-person singular present indicative of farmen
2. imperative of farmen

Hungarian

Etymology

Borrowed from English farm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?f?rm]
• Hyphenation: farm
• Rhymes: -?rm

Noun

farm (plural farmok)

1. farm

   Synonyms: tanya, gazdaság, birtok, földbirtok

Declension

References

Further reading

• farm in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmez? szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: ?ISBN

Icelandic

Noun

farm

1. indefinite accusative singular of farmur

Volapük

Noun

farm (nominative plural farms)

1. farm

Declension