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barb

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Pronunciation

  • /bɑː(ɹ)b/[1]

barb1 point, hook; beard

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

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