'windrow' originates from a compound of Old English, specifically the words 'wind' and 'row', where 'wind' meant 'moving air' and 'row' meant 'line' or 'row'.

'windrow' developed in Early Modern English as a compound (literally 'wind-row') and by the 18th–19th century was used in agriculture for a row of mown grass left to dry; it later extended to similar rows or piles (e.g. snow, debris).

Initially it had the literal sense of a 'row related to wind or a line', but over time it became specialized to mean a deliberately formed line or pile of cut vegetation or other material for drying/collection.