Etymology Dictionary

OATS,  the name of a kind of grain.  (E.)   M. E. otes, s. pl., Chaucer, C. T. 7545.   The sing. form appears in mod. E. oat-cake, oat-meal, and the adj. oat-en.—A. S. áta; we find wilde áta as a gloss to zizania in the Northumb. gloss to Matt. xiii. 38; also æcer-sǽd áten, an acre-seed of oats, A. S. Chron. an. 1124, where áten is for átan, gen. sing. of áta.   β. Mr. Wedgwood compares A. S. áta with Icel. áta, food to eat; but the A. S. word rightly answering to Icel. áta is ǽt, Grein, i. 73, which of course is from the verb etan, to eat.   γ. Instead of this, I should prefer to connect A. S. áta with Icel. eitill, a nodule in stone, Norweg. eitel, a gland, knot, nodule in stone, Russ. iadro, a kernel in fruit, bullet, ball, shot, Gk. οἶδος, a swelling.   If this be right, the orig. meaning of oat was grain, corn, kernel, with reference to the manner of its growth, the grains being of bullet-like form; and it is derived from ✔ID, to swell, not from ✔AD, to eat.   See Fick, i. 28, iii. 4.   Der. oat-en, adj., with suffix -en as in gold-en, oak-en; oat-meal, oat-cake.