An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/mähen

by Friedrich Kluge

mähen, verb, ‘to mow,’ from the equivalent Middle High German mœjen, Old High German mâen; corresponding to Dutch maaijen, Anglo-Saxon mâwan (preterite meów), English to mow. A common West Teutonic root mê, ‘to mow,’ has already been deduced from the previous word; it appears in Greek with a vowel prefixed in ἄ-μη-τος, ‘harvest,’ and ἀ-μάω, ‘to mow’; the t in the Latin root mêt, ‘to mow, harvest,’ which originally belonged to the present stem only, may have been regarded as a part of the root; to this is allied Old Irish meithel, ‘a party of reapers.’