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

Perennial, soft-downy and pale; panicle oblong; upper empty glume mucronate-awned under the apex; awn of the staminate flower curved.—Moist meadows.

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

P. alpìnum, L. Low; spike ovate-oblong; lower glumes strongly ciliate on the back, tipped with a rough awn about their own length.—Alpine tops of the White Mountains, N. H., and high northward.

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

Lower flower perfect, its papery or thin-coriaceous glume awnless and pointless; the upper flower staminate, otherwise similar, but bearing a stout bent awn below the apex.

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