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lawn1

[lawn]
noun
  1. a stretch of open, grass-covered land, especially one closely mowed, as near a house, on an estate, or in a park.
  2. Archaic. a glade.
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Origin of lawn1

1250–1300; Middle English launde < Middle French lande glade < Celtic; compare Breton lann heath. See land
Related formslawn·y, adjective

lawn2

[lawn]
noun
  1. a thin or sheer linen or cotton fabric, either plain or printed.
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Origin of lawn2

1375–1425; late Middle English lawnd, laun, perhaps named after Laon, where linen-making once flourished
Related formslawn·y, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for lawny

Historical Examples

  • Just below, at Eagle Falls, it drops over its precipice in a lawny cascade.

    The Blue-Grass Region of Kentucky

    James Lane Allen

  • So, upon a magnificent tableau, slowly falls the lawny curtain.

  • The passage was very narrow, but 39 lightsome, for a door was open at the end, peeping into a lawny kind of yard.

British Dictionary definitions for lawny

lawn1

noun
  1. a flat and usually level area of mown and cultivated grass
  2. an archaic or dialect word for glade
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Derived Formslawny, adjective

Word Origin

C16: changed form of C14 launde, from Old French lande, of Celtic origin; compare Breton lann heath; related to land

lawn2

noun
  1. a fine linen or cotton fabric, used for clothing
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Derived Formslawny, adjective

Word Origin

C15: probably from Laon, a town in France where linen was made
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for lawny

lawn

n.1

"turf, stretch of grass," 1540s, laune "glade, open space between woods," from Middle English launde (c.1300), from Old French lande "heath, moor, barren land; clearing" (12c.), from Gaulish (cf. Breton lann "heath"), or from its Germanic cognate, source of English land (n.). The -d perhaps mistaken for an affix and dropped. Sense of "grassy ground kept mowed" first recorded 1733.

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lawn

n.2

"thin linen or cotton cloth," early 15c., probably from Laon, city in northern France, a center of linen manufacture. The town name is Old French Lan, from Latin Laudunum, of Celtic origin.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper