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hay

(hā)

1. Grass or other plants, such as clover or alfalfa, cut and dried for fodder.

2. Slang A trifling amount of money: gets $100 an hour, which isn't hay.

v. hayed, hay·ing, hays

v.intr.

To mow and cure grass and herbage for hay.

v.tr.

1. To make hay on (a patch of land).

2. To make (grass or other plants) into hay.

3. To feed with hay.

[Middle English, from Old English hīeg; see kau- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

hayer n.

Hay

(hā), John Milton 1838-1905.

American public official and writer who served as ambassador to Great Britain (1897-1898) and US secretary of state (1898-1905). Assistant private secretary to Abraham Lincoln (1861-1864), he kept a diary throughout the Civil War and coauthored a ten-volume biography of Lincoln (1890).

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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