haymow

[prettygoodword]

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.

Comments

[ranunculus]

I always associated haymow with loosely stacked hay as opposed to baled hay. As far as I know that isn't in the official description, but often when you read about people working in a haymow they are using a pitchfork to move the hay, which works great for loose hay, but doesn't work for baled hay.
I suppose the term haymow could apply to the attic area in the houses we were familiar with in Mexico. They stored ears of corn there.

[prettygoodword]

I didn’t make that clear, but yes, it does seem to men a loose pile in contrast to a bale.