means A 'row' can mean a neat line of things side by side, a noisy quarrel, or the act of propelling a boat with oars — three distinct words that happen to share a spelling.

from These are actually three separate words wearing the same coat. The 'line' sense and the 'paddle a boat' sense both trace back to Old English (raw, a line; and rowan, to row), with roots reaching into Proto-Germanic and possibly further to a Proto-Indo-European base meaning 'to steer or move.' The 'quarrel' sense is the odd one out: it surfaced as slang around the late 18th century, origin genuinely unknown — a bit of street English whose parentage was never recorded.