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| NOUN: |
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- A widely cultivated cereal grass, Avena sativa.
- The oat stalks made good straw.
- Any of several similar grain plants.
- The wild red oat is thought to be the ancestor of modern food oats,
- (often pluralized) The seeds of the oat, harvested as a food crop.
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| ETYMOLOGY: |
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Middle English ote, from Old English āte, from Proto-Germanic *aitōn (“swelling”) (compare Old High German eiz 'abscess', Dutch etter 'pus', East Frisian eitel 'fast, raging', Old Norse eitill 'nodule'), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eid- 'to swell' (compare Latin aemidus 'swollen, protuberant', Old Church Slavonic jadŭ 'poison', Ancient Greek oidéein 'to swell', Old Armenian այտնում (aytnum) 'to swell', այտ (ayt) 'cheek', Sanskrit índu 'water drop'). For sense development, compare Ancient Greek oídax 'unripe fig' from oîdos 'swelling, tumor'. |
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