bær

Forms

bær (adjective)^[2]

• Inflected: nominative plural baru, dative barum, accusative masculine singular bærne; weak se bara.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *baʀ, from Proto-Germanic *bazaz (“naked, visible”).^[1][3] The adjective is found in Old Norse berr, Old Frisian ber (in compounds such as berfōt "barefoot"), Old Saxon bar and Old High German bar;^[3][4][5][6] Gothic has no record of it.^[3][4][5][6]

Kroonen derives it from Proto-Indo-European *bʰos-ó-.^[3] Orel compares Lithuanian bãsas (“barefoot”) and Proto-Slavic *bosъ (“barefoot”).^[4] The EWA takes the original meaning to have been "barefoot", as in Baltic, Slavic and Armenian, and notes that the -z- became -r- in West and North Germanic.^[5] Köbler adds the root of rubbing and scattering behind it, with a query.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective is first dated in the Junius manuscript (s. x²): in Genesis B Adam says wit her baru standað, unwered wædo “we two stand here naked, unprotected by clothing”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The word means naked, without clothes, and of things uncovered or bare: bare sands in the Meters of Boethius, a bare floor in Ælfric's life of Saint Martin, bare feet and bare hands.^[2][10] It is a rare word in the dated record.^[9]

The adjective lived on as Middle English bare, now English bare; the sense "sheer, absolute" appears about 1200.^[1][11]

Timeline

• s. x² – wit her baru standað in Genesis B in the Junius manuscript.^[8][9]
• s. xi in. – on þære baran flora “on the bare floor” in Ælfric's life of Saint Martin.^[12][9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. naked, unclothed.^[2][13][7]
2. bare, uncovered.^[10]

Descendants

• Middle English bare (→ English bare; Scots bare; Scots bair)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 66
3. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 56
4. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 40
5. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. I
6. ^ a b Heidermanns, Frank (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen Primäradjektive, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. 121
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. bær
8. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 513
9. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
10. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 61
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 282
13. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 38