chow

The word 'chow' entered English in the late 19th century as a shortened form of 'chow-chow', the name for the breed of dog. 'Chow-chow' itself is thought to be a pidgin English term of Chinese origin, possibly derived from a Cantonese word for a mixed item or miscellany. The informal sense of 'chow' meaning food or to eat emerged in the late 19th century in American English, likely influenced by the association of Chinese immigrants with food service, particularly in the context of 'chow chow' as a type of pickled relish. Thus, the word's journey reflects cultural contact, linguistic borrowing, and semantic shift from a specific referent to a general slang term.

This word is a simplex loanword. It does not break down into meaningful substrings in modern English.