bairn

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English barn, bern, from Old English (Anglian dialect) 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

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).

Noun

bairn (plural bairns)

  1. (Scotland, and parts of Northern England) A child or baby.

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, 2001–2018.
  • bairn in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

Scots

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [beːrn]

Noun

bairn (plural bairns)

  1. child

Derived terms

Descendants

Verb

bairn (third-person singular present bairns, present participle bairnin, past bairnt, past participle bairnt)

  1. to make pregnant
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