Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A child.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A child; a son or daughter. See barn.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Scot. & Prov. Eng. A child.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Scotland, and parts of Northern England A child or baby.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a child: son or daughter

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English barn, from Old English bearn; see bher- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English barn, bern, from Old English (Anglian dialect) bearn ("child, son, descendant, offspring, issue, prodigy") and Old Norse barn ("child"), both from Proto-Germanic *barnan (“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"), Swedish barn ("child"), Icelandic barn ("child"), Albanian barrë ("pregnancy, child"). See also barn.

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Examples

  • "The bairn is clean out of her senses!" cried Marg'ret almost with a scream.

    Kirsteen: The Story of a Scotch Family Seventy Years Ago Margaret 1891

  • She heard herself remonstrating, "Sir, ye canna force your ain bairn, to make her meeserable," and the response, "What the deevil have you to do with it, if I make her meeserable or no?"

    Kirsteen: The Story of a Scotch Family Seventy Years Ago Margaret 1891

  • Margaret, in reflecting on her four Samuels, wonders, "Do a wee but of a name change the plans o 'God? .... be God a weak, shilly-shallyun creature thot ud alter the fate an' destiny o 'thungs because Margaret Heenan seen fut till name her bairn Samuel?"

    “Samuel! There was a rolling wonder in the sound. Ay, there was!” 2008

  • Margaret Henan seen fut tull name her bairn Samuel?

    Samuel 1914

  • An 'then I see Doctor Hall go away, wrunklun' hus eyebrows an 'shakun' hus head like the bairn was ailun '.

    Samuel 1914

  • I needna tell ye I christened him Alick, and the bairn has been my joy and comfort ever since God gifted me with him.

    Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places Archibald Forbes 1869

  • ` ` The bairn was a blessing --- that is, Jeanie, it wad hae been a blessing if it hadna been for my mother; but my mother's a queer woman.

    The Heart of Mid-Lothian 1822

  • An’ then I see Doctor Hall go away, wrunklun’ hus eyebrows an’ shakun’ hus head like the bairn was ailun’.

    SAMUEL 2010

  • Do the world run by hut or muss, an’ be God a weak, shully-shallyun’ creature thot ud alter the fate an’ destiny o’ thungs because the worm Margaret Henan seen fut tull name her bairn Samuel?

    SAMUEL 2010

  • She listened to Lisbeth's cheerful chatter as she bustled about the room, encouraging her "bairn" to try a piece of this, a "wee bit scrappie" of that, till Marjory told her that she simply couldn't eat any more.

    Hunter's Marjory A Story for Girls Margaret Bruce Clarke

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