awn

American  

[awn] / ɔn /

noun

Botany.

1. a bristlelike appendage of a plant, especially on the glumes of grasses.

2. such appendages collectively, as those forming the beard of wheat, barley, etc.

3. any similar bristle.

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awn British  

/ ɔːn /

noun

1. any of the bristles growing from the spikelets of certain grasses, including cereals

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awn Scientific  

/ ôn /

1. A slender, bristlelike appendage found on the spikelets of many grasses.

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Other Word Forms

• awned adjective
• awnless adjective
• unawned adjective

Etymology

Origin of awn

1250–1300; Middle English aw ( u ) n, agune, agene, probably < Scandinavian; compare Old Norse ǫgn, Old Danish aghn husk; replacing and cognate with Old English ægnan; cognate with Gothic ahana, Old High German agana ( German Agen, Ahne ), Dutch, Frisian agen; OL agna ear of grain, Czech osina awn; Greek ákaina thorn, bristle, ákhnē chaff (< a pre-Hellenic substratum language); < Indo-European *Haeḱ- sharp

Example Sentences

A thin film it leaves behind makes the awn an even better spot for condensation, making water collection yet more efficient.

From Washington Post • Jun. 7, 2016

He at one point invoked the excesses of “King Jahge,” a tyrant who “made judges dependent awn his will alone.”

From Slate • Jan. 5, 2015

Spike short, dense, strict and rigid, usually tinged with violet or purple; spikelets 3–5-flowered; glumes conspicuously 5-nerved, rather abruptly narrowed into a cusp or short awn.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Mr. Franklin, the gentleman you called awn this evenin', is a member of my family.

From Horace Chase by Woolson, Constance Fenimore

Culm and rootstocks stouter than in C. stricta; the narrow panicle less dense, and purplish spikelets larger; glumes fully 2´´ long, tapering to a point; awn from much below the middle of the glume, stout.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa