mowen

From Old English magan, from Proto-West Germanic *magan, from Proto-Germanic *maganą.

Most forms are from an Old English by-form *mugan (no doubt due to the analogy of dugan).

• magen, maȝen, mayen, mauen, mawe, mawen, moȝen, mouen, mouin, moun, mouwe, mouwen, mow, mowe, mugen, muȝhen

• IPA^(key): /ˈmuːən/, /ˈmɔu̯ən/
• (Early Middle English) IPA^(key): /ˈmuɣən/, /ˈmaɣən/
• (Northern) IPA^(key): /muː/, /mɑu̯/

mowen (third-person singular simple present may, present participle mowynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative myghte, past participle mowen)

1. To be strong or powerful.
2. (auxiliary) To be able to; to have the capability (to do); can.
   • p. 1154, “AD 1137”, in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS. Laud Misc. 636, continuation), Peterborough, folio 89, verso; republished at Oxford: Digital Bodleian, 8 February 2018:

     Þu myhteſ faren al a dæiſ fare ſculdeſt thu neure finden man in tun ſittende · ne land tiled.

     You could go a whole day's journey, but you'd never find anyone in town or any tilled fields.

   • c. 1390, [William Langland], “Paſſus quıntus de vıſıone vt supͣ”, in Peres plouhman (X, C-text), southwest Worcestershire, published c. 1395, folio 64, verso; republished as MS. HM 143, San Marino, CA: Huntingdon Digital Library, p. 2011:

     Ac of this mete þat mayſt[er] / myhte nat weˡ̭ chewe / Foꝛthy eet he mete of moꝛe coſt / moꝛtrewes and potages.

     But that food the cleric couldn't really manage, / so he ate more expensive food: mortrews and pottages

   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎^[1], published c. 1410, Apocalips 6:17, folio 119, verso, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     foꝛ þe greet dai of her wraþþe comeþ · ⁊ who ſchal mowe ſtonde

     […] because the great day of their wrath has arrived, and who'll be able to stand?

3. (auxiliary) To potentially be able (to do); might.
   • 1407, The Testimony of William Thorpe, pages 40–41:

     Maister Ion Aston taughte and wroot acordingli and ful bisili, where and whanne and to whom he myghte, and he vsid it himsilf, I gesse, right perfyghtli vnto his lyues eende. […] "

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

4. (auxiliary) To be permitted (to do); may.
5. (auxiliary) To ought (to do); should.
6. (auxiliary) Will, would.
7. (auxiliary) As a syntactic marker.

As in Modern English, what are historically the past forms of this verb are frequently used with present or even future semantics.

• English: may
• Scots: mey, may, ma
• Yola: mye, mai, mey, meigh, maa, ma

• “mouen, v.(3).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 12 March 2018.

From Old English māwan, from Proto-West Germanic *māan, from Proto-Germanic *mēaną.

• mawe, mawen, mouin, mouwe, mow, mowe

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɔu̯ən/
• (Early Middle English) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑu̯ən/
• (Northern) IPA^(key): /mɑu̯/

mowen (third-person singular simple present moweth, present participle mowynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative mew, past participle mowen)

2. To mow; to cut or slice off (the tops) of grasses or stalks.
3. To collect crops using a scythe or similar implement.

• mowynge
• mowere

• English: mow
• Scots: maw

• “mouen, v.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 3 May 2019.

From mowe (“wry expression; taunt”) +‎ -en (verb-forming suffix).

• mowe, mowyn

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɔu̯ən/

mowen (third-person singular simple present moweth, present participle mowende, mowynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle mowed)

1. to make a face
2. to smile or laugh derisively

• English: mow
• Middle Scots: mow
  • >? Scots: mow (“to copulate”)

• “mouen, v.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From mowe (“haystack”) +‎ -en (verb-forming suffix).

• mouwen, moweye, mughe, muwe

• IPA^(key): /ˈmuːən/

mowen (third-person singular simple present moweth, present participle mowende, mowynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle mowed)

1. to stack hay or grains

• English: mow (dialectal)
• >? Middle Scots: *mow, *mowe
  • Scots: moue, mow (possibly formed anew from the noun)

• “mouen, v.(4).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

mowen

1. plural of mowe (“haystack”)