barge

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English barge,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French barge, also Anglo-Norman,^{[4][5][6][7][8]} where the word is recorded from 1121–25 for a seagoing sailing vessel, a war vessel and a river boat.^[9] The OED takes the French word as apparently related to Latin barca (“a small boat”), the source of bark and barque, and compares Medieval Latin barga (from the 9th century) and Old Occitan barga, though the change of consonant is not entirely clear.^[4][10][11] To explain it, a Latin form Vulgar Latin *bārica has been suggested, from Latin bāris or Ancient Greek βᾶρις (bâris), a boat used on the Nile;^[4][5] Barnhart derives it so,^[5] and Hoad thinks it possible,^[7] but the OED notes that the Greek word is used almost only of Egypt, while barca is first found in western Europe.^[4] Etymonline also mentions a Celtic origin,^[6] and Skeat a possible Celtic source of barca;^[12] the OED records an Iberian proposal.^[4] The verb, to travel by barge, is formed from the noun.^[4][6] Most dictionaries take the sense "to move clumsily or roughly" from the heavy movement of barges as well;^{[6][13][10][14]} the OED, revised in 2024, calls that verb of unknown origin and compares a Scottish verb meaning to scold, recorded from 1811.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A seagoing sailing ship of small or moderate size: about 1330, in the Middle English Gregorius of the Auchinleck manuscript.^[4] Barnhart finds it probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder, with the sense "a boat or small ship with sail".^[5] Surnames such as Walt. de la Barge (1279) may show the word earlier.^[4]

Semantic evolution

A barge was at first a small seagoing vessel, not a flat-bottomed freight boat.^[13][5] From the late 14th century, in Gower, it was also a long ornamental rowing boat, especially one used by royalty or officials,^[4][6] and the freight vessel of canals and rivers is recorded from about 1405, in Chaucer's Miller's Tale.^[4] Barnhart thinks that after bark came into use the English word narrowed to the flat-bottomed boat for freight.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as a boat for pleasure, quoting Shakespeare's barge of Cleopatra.^[15] In navies a barge was a ship's boat for the chief officers (before 1618).^[4][11] In New England a barge was a large horse-drawn carriage or sleigh for many people (1873).^[4] The verb meant to travel by barge from 1599 and to carry by barge from about 1600.^[4][2] The sense of moving roughly or forcefully, recorded in Scotland from 1847,^[4] gave barge in and barge into by 1898,^[6] and Ayto describes it as about a century old.^[10] From the barge pole used to push a barge came the British phrase would not touch it with a bargepole, matched in American English by a ten-foot pole.^[13] In slang a large old woman was a barge from 1865.^[16]

Timeline

• 1121–25 – Anglo-Norman barge.^[9]
• before 1300 – in Kyng Alisaunder, a boat or small ship with sail.^[5]
• c. 1330 – a seagoing sailing vessel.^[4]
• c. 1391 – a long ornamental boat, as for royalty.^[4]
• c. 1405 – a freight vessel for canals and rivers.^[4]
• 1599 – verb, to travel by barge.^[4]
• before 1618 – a ship's boat for the chief officers of a warship.^[4]
• 1847 – verb, to move roughly or forcefully.^[4]
• 1873 – a large carriage or sleigh for many people (New England).^[4]
• 1898 – barge into, to crash heavily into.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long, roomy boat, usually flat-bottomed, used to carry freight on canals, rivers and harbours, towed or with its own engine: A barge loaded with gravel moved slowly upriver.^[11][2][4]
2. A large decorated boat used on state occasions and in pageants.^[11][4]
3. A boat reserved for a flag officer in a navy.^[11][4]
4. Any old or clumsy vessel (jocular).^[11]
5. (obsolete) A seagoing sailing vessel, especially one next larger than a balinger.^[2][4][8]

Verb

1. To carry goods by barge.^[2][4]
2. To move in a clumsy, heavy or headlong way: He barged through the crowd to the bar.^[2][4]
3. barge in or barge into: to bump into someone, or to burst in and interrupt.^[11][6]

Word family

• bargeman
• bargee

Related words

• bark
• barque
• embark

Usage notes

Scottish and Irish English also had a verb barge, to scold or shout at someone, recorded from 1811 and of unknown origin according to the OED,^[4] which Merriam-Webster derives from an Irish word for a shrewish woman;^[2] the noun barge for a cantankerous woman or a loud voice comes from it.^[4][16] Another barge, a strip of leather on a horse collar (1825), is of uncertain origin.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com