"pale yellow, brownish yellow," Old English fealu "reddish yellow, yellowish-brown, tawny, dusk-colored" (of flame, birds' feet, a horse, withered grass or leaves, waters, roads), from Proto-Germanic *falwa- (source also of Old Saxon falu, Old Norse fölr, Middle Dutch valu, Dutch vaal, Old High German falo, German falb), from PIE root *pel- (1) "pale." Related: Fallow-deer.

Old English hwæte "wheat," from Proto-Germanic *hwaitjaz (source also of Old Saxon hweti, Old Norse hveiti, Norwegian kveite, Old Frisian hwete, Middle Dutch, Dutch weit, Old High German weizzi, German Weizen, Gothic hvaiteis "wheat"), literally "that which is white" (in reference to the grain or the meal), from PIE *kwoid-yo-, suffixed variant form of root *kweid-, *kweit- "to shine" (see white; and compare Welsh gwenith "wheat," related to gwenn "white"). The Old World grain was introduced into New Spain in 1528. Wheaties, the cereal brand name, was patented 1925.

"grass-covered ground," c. 1300, from Old English sweard "skin, hide, rind" (of bacon, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *swarthu- (source also of Old Frisian swarde "skin of the head," Middle Dutch swarde "rind of bacon," Dutch zwoord "rind of bacon," German Schwarte "thick, hard skin, rind," Old Norse svörðr "walrus hide"). Meaning "sod, turf" developed from the notion of the "skin" of the earth (compare Old Norse grassvörðr, Danish grønsvær "greensward").

Old English swæð, swaðu "track, footstep, trace, scar, vestige," from Proto-Germanic *swathan, *swatho (source also of Old Frisian swethe "boundary made by a scythe," Middle Dutch swade, Dutch zwade, German Schwad "a row of cut grass"); of uncertain origin. Meaning "a mown crop lying on the ground" is from early 14c.; that of "space covered by the single cut of a scythe" emerged late 15c., and that of "a strip, lengthwise extent" is from c. 1600.

medieval oboe-like instrument, late 14c., shalemyes (plural), also schallemele, from Old French chalemie, chalemel, from Late Latin calamellus, literally "a small reed," diminutive of Latin calamus "reed," from Greek kalamos "reed, grass-stalk," often metaphoric of objects made of reed ("flute of reed, fishing rod, reed pen," etc.).

The Greek word is from PIE *kole-mo- "grass, reed," source also of Old English healm, Old High German halm "straw;" Latin culmus "stalk;" Old Prussian salme "straw," Latvian salms; Russian soloma. Sanskrit kalama- "writing reed," Arabic qalam are said by Beekes to have been borrowed from the Greek word.

Mistaken as a plural and trimmed of its "-s" ending from mid-15c.  Perhaps also influenced along the way by Old French muse as the name of a wind instrument (as in the Middle English variant shalmuse). Related: Shawmist. Shawm also was used as a verb c. 1500, of ducks, "to honk" (make a noise like a shawm).

"turf, stretch of grass," 1540s, laune "glade, open space in a forest or between woods," from Middle English launde (c. 1300), from Old French lande "heath, moor, barren land; clearing" (12c.), from Gaulish (compare Breton lann "heath"), or from a cognate Germanic word, from Proto-Germanic *landam-, source of English land (n.). The -d perhaps was mistaken for an affix and dropped. Sense of "grassy ground kept mowed" first recorded 1733. Lawn-tennis is from 1884.

early 14c., "a small, hard seed," especially of one of the cereal plants, also as a collective singular, "seed of wheat and allied grasses used as food;" also "something resembling grain; a hard particle of other substances" (salt, sand, later gunpowder, etc.), from Old French grain, grein (12c.) "seed, grain; particle, drop; berry; grain as a unit of weight," from Latin granum "seed, a grain, small kernel," from PIE root *gre-no- "grain." From late 14c. as "a species of cereal plant." In the U.S., where corn has a specialized sense, it is the general word (used of wheat, rye, oats, barley, etc.).

Figuratively, "the smallest possible quantity," from late 14c. From early 15c. in English as the smallest unit of weight (originally the weight of a plump, dry grain of wheat or barley from the middle of the ear). From late 14c as "roughness of surface; a roughness as of grains." In reference to wood, "quality due to the character or arrangement of its fibers," 1560s; hence, against the grain (1650), a metaphor from carpentry: cutting across the fibers of the wood is more difficult than cutting along them.

Earliest sense of the word in English was "scarlet dye made from insects" (early 13c.), a sense also in the Old French collateral form graine; see kermes for the evolution of this sense, which was frequent in Middle English; also compare engrain. In Middle English grain also could mean "seed of flowers; pip of an apple, grape, etc.; a berry, legume, nut." Grain alcohol attested by 1854.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to grow."

It forms all or part of: accretion; accrue; cereal; Ceres; concrete; create; creation; creature; Creole; crescendo; crescent; crew (n.) "group of soldiers;" croissant; cru; decrease; Dioscuri; excrescence; excrescent; griot; increase; Kore; procerity; procreate; procreation; recreate; recreation; recruit; sincere.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Greek kouros "boy," korē "girl;" Latin crescere "come forth, spring up, grow, thrive, swell," Ceres, goddess of agriculture, creare "to bring forth, create, produce;" Armenian serem "bring forth," serim "be born."

shoe with soles of hemp-rope (originally worn in the Pyrenees), 1892, from French espadrille (17c.), from Provençal espardillo, from Latin spartum "Spanish broom, Spanish grass," a plant of Iberia and North Africa that produced a fiber used to make mats, nets, ropes, etc., from Greek sparton "rope made of spartos" ("Spanish broom"), from PIE *spr-to-, from root *sper- (2) "to turn, twist" (see Sparta). For initial e- see e-.

also hay-seed, 1570s, "grass seed shaken out of hay," from hay + seed (n.). In U.S. slang sense of "comical rustic" it dates from 1875. To have hayseed in (one's) hair was a common mid-19c. way in U.S. to indicate a country person.

The opinion of the court was delivered by Justice Hunt; the chief justice, in whose hair the Ohio hayseed still lingers, delivering a dissenting opinion (etc.) [The Chronicle, New York, Nov. 12, 1874]