Crop Means Harvest, Haircut and a Bird's Pouch
A crop is a cultivated plant harvested for food. The word also names a cut and part of a bird's gut.
A crop is a cultivated plant grown for harvest, and also the act of cutting something short. The Old English word meant the top or head of a plant, which explains both branches: what you take off the top is the harvest, and to crop is to cut the top off. The same logic covers a cropped photograph and a cropped haircut. A bird's *crop* is a pouch in the throat where food is stored before digestion, named for its position at the top of the gut.
- A harvested plant. *A wheat crop.*
- To cut short. *Crop the photo.*
- A bird's throat pouch. *A pigeon's crop.*
- Crop up — appear unexpectedly. *It cropped up.*
- Old English — *cropp*, a head of a plant. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | crop | A crop. |
| Plural | crops | Crops. |
| Verb | crop | Cropping. |
| Adjective | cropped | Cropped. |
| Old English | cropp | A plant head. |
- The crop failed that summer.Farming.
- Crop the image tighter.Photography.
- A pigeon stores food in its crop.Biology.
About a bird's crop
- It is a pouch in the throat, before the stomach
- Food is stored there and softened before digestion
- It lets a bird feed quickly and digest in safety later
- Pigeons produce crop milk in it to feed their young
- Not all birds have one; owls, for example, do not
Old English *cropp*, the head or top of a plant, also a bird's craw, of Germanic origin.
How does one word cover harvest and haircut?
The Old English word meant the top of a plant. What you take off the top is the crop, and to crop is to cut the top off.
What is a bird's crop for?
Storing and softening food before digestion, which lets a bird feed quickly and digest somewhere safer.