bairn
(bɛən, in Sc. bern)
Forms: α. 1–3 bearn, 2–3 bern, bærn, (4 byern,) 7 berne, bearn. β. 1–9 barn (3 barrn, barin, 4 baron), 4–7 barne. γ. 5–9 bairn.
[Common Teutonic: OE. bearn = OFris. bern, OS., OHG., MHG., Goth., ON., Da., Sw. barn, (MDu. baren):—OTeut. *barno-(m), f. beran to bear. Lost in G. and Du.; also in southern Eng., where the modern repr. of OE. bearn would have been bern (cf. fern) or barn (cf. arm, warn). In fact, berne survived in the south to 1300, barn still survives in northern English, and was used by Shakespeare; bairn is the Scotch form (cf. fairn, airm, wairn), occasionally used in literary English since 1700. It is doubtful whether the berne, bearn of some 17th c. Eng. writers was a survival of the early southern form, or a variant spelling of bairn. The pl. bærn in Ormin is the ON. börn, hence it is probable that the northern singular barn is as much of ON. as of OE. origin.]
A child; a son or daughter. (Expressing relationship, rather than age.)
| α Beowulf 1063 Beowulf maþelode, bearn Ecᵹþéowes. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. v. 35 Ðæt ᵹe s{iacu}n eowres Fæder bearn. c 1160 Hatton G. ibid., Eowres Fader bærn. a 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 131 Alle þe bernes . þe ben boren of wifes bosem. c 1230 Ancr. R. 272 Recabes sunen..helle bearnes. c 1300 Wright Lyric P. xviii. 58 Suete Ihesu, berne best. 1621 B. Jonson Gipsies Metam., Have care of your bearns. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. v. v, Many fair lovely bernes to you betide. a 1688 Dk. Buckhm. Pump Parl. Wks. 1705 II. 99 Our Bearns and Wives. |
| β 830 in Thorpe Diplom. 465 His barna sue huelc sue lifes sie. c 1200 Ormin 8039 Herode king let slæn þa little barrness. Ibid. 6808 Þatt wærenn Noþess þrinne bærn. a 1275 Prov. Alfred 589 in O.E. Misc. 135 Þu ard mi barin dere. 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 310 To se hir and hir barn. c 1340 Cursor M. 904 (Fairf.) In sorow þou sal þi barnys bere [v.r. berns, childer, children]. a 1400 Cov. Myst. (1841) 182 Alas, ywhy was my baron born. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. xviii. 6 That blisfulle barne in Bedelem was born. 1577 Harrison England ii. v. 108 To this daie, even the common sort doo call their male children barnes here in England, especiallie in the north countrie. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iii. ii. 70 Mercy on's, a Barne? A very pretty barne; A boy, or a Childe I wonder? 1687 De la Pryme Diary (1869) 11 No one scarce believes that she [the queen] is realy with barn. 1711 J. Greenwood Eng. Gram. 276 Bearn, Barn, a Son, or Off⁓spring (a Word common with the Scotch, and our North-Countreymen). 1864 Tennyson North. Farmer 6 Bessy Marris's barne! tha knaws she laäid it to meä. |
| γ 1513–75 Diurn. Occurr. (1833) 67 Efter them wes ane cart with certane bairnes. 1549 Compl. Scot. xv. 123 It is fors to me & vyf and bayrns to drynk vattir. a 1605 Montgomerie Poems (1821) 18 Burnt bairn with fyre the danger dreidis. a 1626 Beaum. & Fl. Love's Cure iii. i, Has he not well provided for the bairn? 1703 Penn in Pa. Hist. Mem. IX. 241, I wish..I had it for one of my poor bairns. 1714 Swift Corr. Wks. 1841 II. 527, I wish I could return your compliments as to my wife and bairns. 1857 H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets x. II. 25 That deep dark-eyed Scottish bairn was Robert Burns. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. vi. 483 Harthacnut too..was at least a kingly bairn. |
Comb. (all
north. dial.)
bairn-dole, child's portion;
bairn-like a., child-like,
adv. in child-like manner;
† bairn-part, child's portion;
bairn(s)-bed, womb;
† barn-site, anxiety about children;
bairn's-play, child's play;
bairn's-maid,
-woman, nurse-maid, nurse.
| 1858 Trench Parables xxiv. (1877) 393 The portion of goods that falleth to me; his ‘*bairndole,’ as they would call it in Yorkshire. |
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. ix. xx. 111 That suld noucht han been done *barnelike. |
| 1533 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1860) 112 That my sonne and..my dowghter have their *barne partes of my goodes. |
| 1549 Compl. Scot. 67 Ane vomans *bayrnis bed [printed hed]. |
| 1863 Provinc. Danby s.v., She's got a swelling on the *bairn bed. a 1300 Cursor M. 11625 Ne haf yee for me na barn-site. |
| 1863 Reader 8 Apr. 386 Who was *bairn's-maid to a daughter of the great philosopher. |
| 1637 Rutherford Lett. 88 (1862) I. 226 To make it a matter of *bairn's play. |
| 1823 Galt Entail I. i. 2 Who, in her youth, was *bairnswoman to his son. |
Hence (
north. dial.)
ˈbairnie, little child;
ˈbairnish a., childish;
ˈbairnishness.