Meaning

noun annual grass of Europe and North Africa; grains used as food and fodder (referred to primarily in the plural: `oats')

noun seed of the annual grass Avena sativa (spoken of primarily in the plural as `oats')

originInherited from Middle English ote, from Old English āte, from Proto-West Germanic *aitā, from Proto-Germanic *aitǭ (“swelling; gland; nodule”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyd- (“to swell”). See English atter (“poison”). Cognates * Germanic: cognate with Scots ait (“oat”), West Frisian oat (“wild oat”), Dutch oot, aat (“wild oat”), Saterland Frisian Aate (“pea”), German Low German Aat (“oat”),…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0