Other forms: hays
Hay is dried grass stored as winter feed for animals. Bales of hay, make hay, a hay barn.
It must be dried down properly before baling, because damp hay heats as it ferments and barn fires start that way every summer. Silage is the wet-preserved alternative. Make hay while the sun shines is the proverb and it is literal advice. Note that the Old English word comes from a verb meaning to cut.
1nounhayDried grass stored as winter feed for animals.
“The farmer stacked bales of hay high in the barn.”
hay is animal feed.
Old English hieg comes from a Germanic verb meaning to hew or cut down. Hew is the same root.
Proto-Germanic
*hawją
Proto-West Germanic
*hawi
Old English
hīeġ
Middle English
hey
English, today
hay
Built from
From Middle English hey, from Old English hīeġ, from Proto-West Germanic hawi, from Proto-Germanic hawją, from hawwaną (“to hew, cut down”). Cognate with West Frisian hea (“hay”), gsw Heuw (“hay”), cim höobe (“hay”), Dutch hooi (“hay”), German Heu (“hay”), lb Hee (“hay”), mhn hei (“hay”), Yiddish היי (“hay”), Danish hø (“hay”), Faroese hoyggj (“hay”), gmq-gut hoy (“hay”), Icelandic hey (“hay”), Norwegian Bokmål -, Norwegian Nynorsk høy (“hay”), Swedish hö (“hay”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍅𐌹 (“grass, hay”). More at hew.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA