bairn

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English

Etymology

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

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).

Noun

bairn (plural bairns)

  1. (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.
    • 1998, Jonathan Langley, Collins Bedtime Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Tales, Bobby Shaftoe, page 87:
      Bobby Shaftoe's getten a bairn
      For to dandle in his arm;
      In his arm and on his knee,
      Bobby Shaftoe loves me.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

bairn (third-person singular simple present bairns, present participle bairning, simple past and past participle bairned)

  1. (transitive, Scotland) To make pregnant.
    • 1992, Robin Jenkins, Happy for the Child, page 108:
      Go and kick the man that bairned your Nancy.
    • 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 171:
      Just because he's signed up fir the fuckin army again, six bastard years this time, and bairned some slag.

References

References

Anagrams

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

Noun

bairn (plural bairns)

  1. 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

Descendants

  • → English: bairn

Verb

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

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

References

Wikious
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