DCHP-2

windrow DCHP-2 (November 2016)

• n. — Transportation, Outdoors

  a ridge of snow that is heaped along the side of a road by a snowplough.

  Type: 5. Frequency — This analogy comes from the farming practice of creating rows in fields, which is the more general definition of the term (see the 1860 quotation for the older meaning, which is not Canadian). The Canadian meaning refers to the non-agricultural context of snow clearing (see Chart 1). This semantic transfer and specialization seems to have been established around the early to mid-20th century (see the 1950 quotation), when machines were increasingly used for the clearing of snow from city streets and country roads.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "windrow (3)", which labels the meaning "Cdn".

  • The original term is inspired by the agricultural practice of having peat or sod "dried by exposure to the wind" (OED-3, s.v. "windrow" (a.)), documented as early as 1523-34 in England (as "wynd-rowe").