towyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[tow 词源字典]
tow: English has two words tow. The older, ‘pull’ [OE], came from a prehistoric Germanic *togōjan (source also of Norwegian toga ‘pull’). This was derived from the base *tog-, variants of which gave English team, tug, etc, and it goes back ultimately to the same Indo-European base as produced Latin dūcere ‘pull, lead’ (source of English conduct, duke, etc). Tow ‘flax or hemp fibre’ [14] was borrowed from Middle Low German touw.

This probably went back to the prehistoric Germanic base *tōw-, *taw- ‘make, prepare’ (source also of English tool), in the specialized sense ‘make yarn from wool, spin’.
=> conduct, duct, duke, educate, team, teem, tie, tug; tool[tow etymology, tow origin, 英语词源]
tow (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"pull with a rope," Old English togian "to drag, pull," from Proto-Germanic *tugojanan (cognates: Old English teon "to draw," Old Frisian togia "to pull about," Old Norse toga, Old High German zogon, German ziehen "to draw, pull, drag"), from PIE root *deuk- "to pull, draw" (cognates: Latin ducere "to lead;" see duke (n.)). Related: Towed; towing.
tow (n.1)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"the coarse, broken fibers of flax, hemp, etc., separated from the finer parts," late 14c., probably from Old English tow- "spinning" (in towlic "fit for spinning," tow-hus "spinning-room"), perhaps cognate with Gothic taujan "to do, make," Middle Dutch touwen "to knit, weave," from Proto-Germanic *taw- "to manufacture" (see taw (v.)).
tow (n.2)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1600, "rope used in towing," from tow (v.). Meaning "act or fact of being towed" is from 1620s.