crop
UK[krɒp]US[krɑːp]
n
A plant, especially a cereal, fruit, or vegetable, grown in large quantities for food or other use
n
The total amount of produce harvested from a plant or area of land
n
A group of people or things appearing or occurring at the same time
n
A hairstyle in which the hair is cut very short
n
A pouch in a bird's gullet where food is stored or prepared for digestion
v
To cut something, especially hair or grass, very short
v
To harvest a crop from an area of land
v
To appear or occur unexpectedly
Etymology
The word 'crop' originates from a common Germanic root meaning a rounded protuberance or cluster. This core concept of a swelling or bunch branched out semantically in several directions. In Old English, it referred to the top part of a plant, a sprout, or the pouch in a bird's throat, all sharing a sense of a rounded, bulging form. From the agricultural sense of the produce of a field (the "bunch" of plants), it generalized to the yield of a harvest. The verb meaning "to cut short" developed from the practice of cutting off the tops of plants or trimming hair to a rounded shape, while the sense of a "group appearing together" evolved from the idea of a single season's yield or produce.
Analysis
This is a simplex word of Germanic origin. The Old English form was 'cropp', meaning a cluster or head of a plant, the sprout of a herb, or the craw of a bird. It is related to Old Norse 'kroppr' (body, trunk) and German 'Kropf' (crop, craw).
Examples
The main crop grown in the region is wheat.
She decided to crop her hair for the summer.
A new crop of students arrives every September.