bairn
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English bern, barn, from Old English bearn. Cognate with English bear, West Frisian bern, Swedish barn, Old High German barn
Pronunciation
- (Scotland) IPA(key): /bɛəɹn/, /bɛəɹn/
- (Northumberland) IPA(key): /bɛəʀn/
- (UK, rhotic) IPA(key): /bɛəɹn/
- (UK, non-rhotic) IPA(key): /bɛən/
- (US, Canada, Ireland, West Country) IPA(key): /bɛɚn/
Audio (Scotland) (file)
In some areas (e.g. Bradford), pronounced as IPA(key): /bɑːn/. See Etymology 2 under barn. (See page 216 in Joseph Wright's A Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill).
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:child.
Derived terms
References
- The New Geordie Dictionary, Frank Graham, 1987, →ISBN
- Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin,
- Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
- Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977
- A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, →ISBN
- “bairn” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
- bairn in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
References
- “bairn” (US) / “bairn” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.
Scots
Etymology
From Middle English barn, bern, from Old English bearn (“child, son, descendant, offspring, issue, progeny”) and Old Norse barn (“child”), both from Proto-Germanic *barną (“child”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, bring forth”). Cognate with West Frisian bern (“child”), North Frisian baern, born (“child”), Middle High German barn (“child, son, daughter”), Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic barn (“child”), Albanian barrë (“pregnancy, child”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [beːrn]
Derived terms
- bairnheid
- bairnie
- grandbairn
- stap-bairn
Descendants
- → English: bairn
Verb
bairn (third-person singular present bairns, present participle bairnin, past bairnt, past participle bairnt)
- to make pregnant
References
- “bairn” (US) / “bairn” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.