haymow (HAY-mou) - n., a pile of hay stored in a barn; the place in a barn where hay is stored, hayloft.
This word makes more sense if you know that mow has a now largely obsolete (except in regional dialects) meaning of "a stack of hay, grain, or beans in storage" as well as a place in storage for such a stack. (This sense of mow is a homonym of mow as in to cut down, with a different etymology.) A haymow is, thus, a mow specifically of and for hay.
---L.
This word makes more sense if you know that mow has a now largely obsolete (except in regional dialects) meaning of "a stack of hay, grain, or beans in storage" as well as a place in storage for such a stack. (This sense of mow is a homonym of mow as in to cut down, with a different etymology.) A haymow is, thus, a mow specifically of and for hay.
---L.