Paddled a boat through water using oars, or argued loudly with someone.
Old English 'rowan' meant to paddle with oars, likely from Proto-Germanic roots. The meaning expanded to 'quarrel' in the 1600s, possibly influenced by the violent, forceful motion of rowing, though some scholars suggest it's a different word from the nautical sense.
English has two words pronounced 'rowed' with different origins: the boat one comes from ancient Germanic languages, while the argument one might come from Romani or unknown sources—homonyms created by completely different word families that happen to sound identical.
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