Where does “strewn” come from?
Strewn comes from the Old English past participle of strawen, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ster-, meaning to spread or scatter.
strewn (English): past participle of strew
Ancestry of “strewn”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | strew | To distribute objects or pieces of something over... |
| 2 | Middle English | strewen | — |
| 3 | Old English | strewian | Alternative form of strēawian; to strew, scatter |
| 4 | Old English | strēawian | — |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | *strauwjan | — |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | strawjaną | to strew |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | strowéyeti | to strew, to disperse; to spawn |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | strew- | to spread, to strew |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | sterh₃- | to spread, extend, stretch out |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ster- | sterile, infertile |
Words derived from “strewn”