bairn

English

Etymology

Orthographic borrowing from Scots bairn, from Middle English bern, barn, from Old English bearn, from Proto-West Germanic *barn, from Proto-Germanic *barną. Doublet of barn. Compare West Frisian bern.

Pronunciation

(Scotland) IPA^(key): /bern/, /bɛrn/
(Northumberland, North Durham, rhotic) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛəʁn/
(UK, rhotic) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛəɹn/
(UK, non-rhotic) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛən/, /ˈbɛːn/
(US, Canada, Ireland, West Country) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛɚn/
Audio (Scotland) (file)

In some areas (e.g. Bradford), pronounced as IPA^(key): /ˈbaːn/. See Etymology 2 under barn.(See page 216 in Joseph Wright's A Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill).

Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)n, -ɛːn, -aːn

Noun

bairn (plural bairns)

(Scotland, and parts of Northern England) A child or baby.
- 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
  She moved about the country like a ghost, gathering herbs in dark loanings, lingering in kirkyairds, and casting a blight on innocent bairns.
- 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 219:
  They say that a shag is good for an unborn child, they get the circulation of blood, or some shite. The least ah kin dae is take an interest in the bairn’s welfare.

Synonyms

See also Thesaurus:child.

Derived terms

bairnie/bairny
bairnish
bairnless
bairnlike
shy bairns get nowt, shy bairns get noot
stepbairn

Translations

child or baby

Danish: barn (da) n
German: Kind (de) n, Kleinkind (de) n, Baby (de) m

References

Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, →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
Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “bairn”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
bairn in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

References

“bairn”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

Barin, Brain, Brian, Rabin, abrin, brain, brian

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English barn, bern, from Old English bearn (“child, son, descendant, offspring, issue, progeny”) and Old Norse barn (“child”), 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): /bern/, /bɛrn/
Audio (file)

Noun

bairn (plural bairns)

child
A went tae that schuil whan A wis a wee bairn an aw.
I also went to that school when I was a young child

Derived terms

bairnheid
bairnie
grandbairn
stap-bairn

Descendants

→ English: bairn

Verb

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

to make pregnant
Whaiver he wis, he'd bairned her.
Whoever he was, he'd got her pregnant.

References

“bairn” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.