oat

Meaning

Noun

• Widely cultivated cereal grass, typically Avena sativa.
• Any of the numerous species, varieties, or cultivars of any of several similar grain plants in genus Avena.
• The seeds of the oat, a grain, harvested as a food crop.
• A simple musical pipe made of oat-straw.
• The tiniest amount; a whit or jot.

Origin

• From Middle English ote, from Old English āte, from Proto-Germanic *aitǭ ("swelling; gland; nodule"), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyd- ("to swell"). See English atter.
• Germanic: cognate with Scots ait ("oat"), Dutch oot, aat, Saterland Frisian Aate ("pea"), Low German Aat ‘oat’, obsolete Luxembourgish Otz ‘oat’, Icelandic át ‘feed, fodder’. Further related to Icelandic eitill, Norwegian eitel, Old High German eiz (German Eiter ("pus"), Eiß), Dutch etter, East Frisian eitel, Old Norse eitill, West Frisian iete
• Indo-European: Latin aemidus, Old Church Slavonic ꙗдъ, Ancient Greek οἰδέω, Albanian ënj, Old Armenian այտնում, այտ, Sanskrit इन्दु