Obs. exc. dial. (sense 3). Forms: 1 stów, 3 -stouwe, stowe, 4 stéowe, stou, 9 dial. stow. [OE. stów fem. = OFris. stô, ON. *stó in eldstó fireplace:—OTeut. *stōwō f. *stō- (sta-): see STAND v.]
1. = PLACE sb. in various senses; a place on the surface of the earth or in space; occas. a place in a book or writing. Cf. ERDINGSTOW.
The word survives in the names of many towns and villages, sometimes separately, as Stow in Hunts, Stowe in Northamptonshire, Stow-on-the-Wold; more frequently as the terminal element, as in Chepstow.
Beowulf, 1372. Nis þæt heoru stow.
c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxiii. § 5. Þu eart æʓðer ʓe weʓ, ʓe ladþeow, ʓe sio stow ðe se weʓ to liʓð.
a. 1175. Cott. Hom., 219. For wan hi beoð þuss icweðe me scel sigge, an oðre stowe.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 207. He haueð … gon … seldere þenne he sholde to his chirche, and to oðre holie stowen.
c. 1205. Lay., 1209. Makian ich wlle on þine nome mæren ane stowe.
a. 1300[?]. Shires England, 5, in O. E. Misc. Þe breade of Engle londe is þreo hundred myle brod from Dewyes steowe to Doueran.
a. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P., xxxv. 98. On stou ase thou stode,… Thou restest the under rode.
2. (See quot.) rare–1.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 478/1. Stowe, streythe passage betwyx ij. wallys or hedgys, intercapedo.
3. dial. (See quot.)
1856. Morton, Cycl. Agric., II. 726/1. Stow or Tray. (Lincolns.), a sheep-hurdle.
