 The word lawn is derived from the Middle English word lawned, meaning a glade or opening in the woods. Lawned then began to mean also a common area in a village where farmers could graze livestock, a place that may have looked something like a modern lawn, given the natural mowing and fertilizing. The idea of the shared lawn, however, shows the difference in the understanding of a lawn at the time, as the spaces near houses were reserved for growing vegetables, fruits, and herbs.