mews

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   chiefly British, a short street or courtyard lined with buildings that were originally stables and are now often homes

   They rented a small house in a quiet London mews.

2. 2
   noun

   a group of stables, carriage houses, or garages built around a yard or along a lane

   The old mews behind the mansion had room for six carriages.

3. 3
   noun

   historically, cages or an enclosure where trained hawks were kept while molting

   The falconer inspected the mews before returning the hawks to their perches.

Simplified etymology

Mews originally denoted the place where falconry birds were kept while moulting. The late Middle English word is connected with Latin mutare, “to change,” referring to the birds’ change of plumage. After the Royal Mews in London was converted into stables, the word came to mean stables generally and, by the early 19th century, houses converted from former stabling.

Originally the plural of mew, a cage or building where hawks were confined while molting, from Old French mue, 'a change or molt.' The royal hawk mews at Charing Cross became stables in the sixteenth century; their name survived, then spread to other stable courts and the lanes formed by their later conversion into houses.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary