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barb

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Etymology and origin of the English word barb

Pronunciation

  • /bɑː(ɹ)b/[1]

barb1 point, hook; beard

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1305
Borrowed from
Old French barbe via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin barba
Etymology tree of barb1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin barba
French barbe
English barb
From the same root · barb1
Latin barbatus ← barba

Etymology

The point or hook is inherited from Middle English barbe,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French barbe (“beard, beard-like appendage”),[5][6][7][8] recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1086 for a man's beard,[9] from Latin barba (“beard”),[5][4][7][10] which is cognate with beard.[10][6] Etymonline gives the Latin word's ancestor as Proto-Italic *farfa- (“beard”), which may come from the root Proto-Indo-European *bhardhā- (“beard”), also the source of Lithuanian barzda;[5][4] but according to de Vaan, as Etymonline reports, the vowel rather points to a borrowing from a non-Indo-European language.[5] The OED notes that the senses did not develop in English in the order they had in French, and that the sense of a backward-pointing hook is not cited in French, though Old French and Anglo-Norman used an adjective derived from the noun for barbed arrows.[8][9] The verb is barben (“to clip wool”), from barber (“to shave, clip”), from the noun.[2][8][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A piece of pleated cloth worn by widows and nuns under or over the chin: 1305 in Barnhart,[6] c. 1374 in the OED, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.[8][12] The sense of a backward-curving point on an arrow or hook is first recorded about 1390, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,[6][8][13] and the OED calls it the earliest sense of that group.[8]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word also meant a man's beard, a rare sense that lasted until about 1688.[8][3] From 1486 it named beard-like growths of animals, such as the wattles of a cock or the barbels of a fish.[8][11] Johnson (1755) still listed "any thing that grows in the place of the beard" before the points of an arrow.[14] Later senses came from both lines: the filaments of a feather (1835), a hooked hair in botany (1864) and the rough edges left in metal-working (1842).[8] The figurative sense of something that wounds or stings, such as a cutting remark, is first recorded in Sheridan's School for Scandal (1777).[6] The verb first meant to clip wool, cloth or coin (1483) and to shave or trim a beard (1587), senses now obsolete;[8][2] "to furnish with barbs" dates from 1611, in the King James Bible.[8][5] The name of the aquarium fishes called barbs, recorded from 1864, probably comes from the same word.[2] In Devon dialect a barb was a peg hooked at one end and pointed at the other, used to fasten the straw ropes of a rick.[15]

Timeline

  • 1305 – part of a widow's or nun's headdress.[6] The OED's first record is in Chaucer, c. 1374.[8]
  • c. 1390 – a backward-curving point on an arrow or fishhook.[6][8]
  • 1483 – verb, to clip wool, cloth or coin.[8][6]
  • 1486 – a beard-like growth in an animal.[8]
  • before 1500 – a man's beard (rare, obsolete by 1688).[8][3]
  • 1587 – verb, to shave or trim the beard (obsolete).[8]
  • 1611 – verb, to furnish with barbs.[8][5]
  • 1777 – a wounding remark.[6]
  • 1835 – a filament of a feather.[8]
  • 1864 – a barb fish.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sharp point that curves backwards from the tip of an arrow, fishhook or harpoon, so that it is hard to pull out.[16][2][8]
  2. Any similar sharp point, as on barbed wire.[16][2]
  3. A cutting or sarcastic remark; a gibe: The senator ignored the barbs of his rivals.[16][2][6]
  4. One of the hair-like branches on the shaft of a feather.[16][8]
  5. A beard-like growth in an animal, such as a barbel.[16][8][11]
  6. (botany) A hooked hair or bristle.[16][8]
  7. Any of various small, often brightly coloured fishes of the genus Barbus and related genera, kept in aquariums.[16][2]
  8. A piece of pleated linen covering the chin and throat, still worn by some nuns.[8][11][3]

Verb

  1. To provide an arrow, hook or the like with a barb or barbs.[2][8][11]
  2. (obsolete) To shave or trim the beard of.[2][8]
  3. (obsolete) To clip, as wool, cloth or coin, or to mow.[2][8][11]

Word family

  • barbless
  • barbed
  • barbwire
  • barbel
  • barbet

barb2 Barbary horse

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1610
Borrowed from
French barbe
Ultimate origin
Latin barbarus
Etymology tree of barb2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin barba
French barbe
English barb
The journey of barb2
From the same root · barb2
Latin barbatus ← barba

Etymology

The horse is borrowed from French barbe,[8][2][11][10][17] a shortening of Italian barbero (“Barbary horse; of Barbary”),[18][2][11][19] from Barberia (“Barbary”), the coastal region of North Africa.[2][18] The American Heritage Dictionary traces the Italian name through Vulgar Latin *Barbaria (“the Barbary States”) to Latin barbarus (“barbarous”), the source of barbarous.[4] Partridge too relates it to barbarian.[20] The OED notes that the horse was also called a Barbary.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A horse of the breed brought from Barbary and Morocco, famous for speed and endurance: before 1610, in J. Healey's translation of Theophrastus's Characters.[8] Merriam-Webster dates it about 1610,[2] the Shorter Oxford to the mid 17th century,[11] and Dictionary.com to 1630–40.[18]

Semantic evolution

Merriam-Webster describes the barb as a breed related to the Arabian horse, introduced into Spain by the Moors.[2] From 1725 the name was given to a breed of pigeon of black or dun colour, first brought from Barbary,[8][11] and in Australia, from 1926, to a black kelpie dog;[8][11] according to Collins, the dog breed was named after a dog called Barb, itself named after a winning racehorse.[16]

Timeline

  • before 1610 – a horse of the Barbary breed.[8][2]
  • 1725 – a breed of pigeon from Barbary.[8]
  • 1926 – in Australia, a black kelpie.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A horse of the breed native to Barbary in North Africa, related to the Arabian and noted for its speed and endurance.[2][16][8]
  2. A domestic pigeon of a breed with a short, broad beak.[2][16][8]
  3. (Australia) A black kelpie, a sheepdog.[16][8]

Usage notes

Several other words are spelled barb.[2][8] In US campus slang a barb was a student who did not belong to a fraternity, a shortening of barbarian recorded from 1882 or 1900;[2][21] since 1955 barb has also been a slang clipping of barbiturate.[8][11][21] An obsolete barb of 1566–1627, the armour covering a war-horse's breast and flanks, is an alteration of bard.[8][11][2]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  13. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  18. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  19. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  20. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  21. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Barb.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/barb. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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