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barrack

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Etymology and origin of the English word barrack

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈbæɹ.ək/[1]

barrack1 hut; soldiers' lodging

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1686 London Gazette
Borrowed from
French baraque
Ultimate origin
Catalan barraca

Etymology

The word for a hut or soldiers' lodging, now usually plural barracks, is borrowed from French baraque.[2][3][4][5][6] The American Heritage Dictionary traces it through barraque, Old Occitan baraca and Old Spanish barraca to Catalan barraca (“hut”),[5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to Old Catalan;[4] the OED, the Shorter Oxford and Weekley give Italian baracca or Spanish barraca (“soldier's tent”) as the source of the French word.[2][6][7] Etymonline notes that the Spanish word is recorded in Medieval Latin from the mid-13th century.[3] Its further origin is unknown:[2][6][3][8] the OED reports Diez's derivation from a word for bar, and other attempts at an Arabic or Celtic source,[2] and the American Heritage Dictionary suggests a blend of a word akin to Spanish varga (“thatched hut”) with an Andalusian Arabic word.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A temporary hut or cabin, for example for soldiers during a siege: 1686, in the London Gazette.[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) gave first the cabins of Spanish fishermen on the shore or soldiers' huts in a camp, and second the buildings that lodge soldiers, the usual sense in England.[9] The sense "building for troops", usually plural, is recorded from 1697 (see barracks),[2][3] and the singular from 1698.[2] The verb, to put soldiers in barracks, followed in 1701.[2][4] From 1862 the noun was also used of any large, plain building housing many people.[2] The Shorter Oxford marks the sense "hut" obsolete except in northern English.[6] In New York and the mid-Atlantic states a barrack is a roof on poles for storing hay, short for hay barrack.[10][2]

Timeline

  • 1686 – a temporary hut or cabin, as for soldiers during a siege.[2][4]
  • 1697 – usually plural, buildings lodging troops; singular from 1698.[2][3]
  • 1701 – verb, to lodge soldiers in barracks.[2][4]
  • 1835 – verb, intransitive, to live in barracks.[2]
  • 1862 – a large, plain building housing many people.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A building or group of buildings for housing soldiers; usually barracks.[11][4][12]
  2. A large, plain building in which many people are housed.[2][12]
  3. A roof on poles for sheltering hay, in New York and the mid-Atlantic states.[10][2]
  4. (obsolete except in northern dialect) A temporary hut or cabin.[6][2][4]

Verb

  1. To lodge troops in barracks.[11][4][2]

barrack2 jeer; cheer for a team

Confidence
Disputed
First attested
1885

Etymology

The word for jeering at, or cheering for, players is of uncertain origin and apparently Australian.[2][4] Most dictionaries take it as probably from Northern Irish dialect barrack, to brag,[6][13][11][12][5] which Wright's dialect dictionary records in County Antrim, meaning to boast of one's fighting powers, with barracker, a braggart.[14][15] Green's Dictionary of Slang accepts that source,[16] and the Australian National Dictionary Centre says that the dialect word, not borak, is its origin.[17] Morris, in 1898, derived it instead from borak, Australian pidgin for banter or chaff, which farmers' sons were said to have brought back to Victoria from shearing in New South Wales about 1870,[18] and Hoad also takes it from borak,[8] while Partridge suggests an Aboriginal word for derision;[19] the OED mentions both.[2] A correspondent of Partridge's in 1944 connected it with rough football teams that played on vacant land beside the Victoria Barracks in Melbourne,[16] but Morris saw no link with soldiers' barracks.[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

To shout jocular or scornful remarks, or advice, at a player or team in a contest: 1885.[2][4] Morris called it a football word in Australia from about 1880.[18]

Semantic evolution

In Australia the verb first meant to jeer at the other side, and then, with for, to shout in support of one's own: Morris noted that jeering at one side is akin to cheering for the other.[18] Barrack for is recorded from 1889 in Sydney[16] (1890 for the Australian National Dictionary Centre),[17] and in Australian English the jeering became cheering, while British English kept the sense "to jeer".[17][11] The transitive use, to shout at a player or speaker, is recorded from 1901.[2] Morris also reports that the Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly ruled the verb unparliamentary.[18]

Timeline

  • 1885 – intransitive, to shout derisive remarks at a player or team.[2][4]
  • 1889 – barrack for, to support or cheer on.[16]
  • c. 1890 – noun, the act of barracking.[2]
  • 1901 – transitive, to jeer at a player or speaker.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (chiefly British, Australian and New Zealand) To jeer at or loudly criticize a player, team or speaker; to heckle: The crowd barracked the visiting bowler all afternoon.[11][4][12]
  2. (Australian and New Zealand) barrack for: to shout in support of a team or player; to cheer for.[11][4][17][12]

Noun

  1. (Australian and New Zealand) The act of barracking.[6][2]

Word family

  • barracker
  • barracking

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 x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ a b Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ a b c d e Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ 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)
  15. ^ Dolan, Terence Patrick (2004), A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English, 2nd ed., Dublin: Gill & Macmillan
  16. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ a b c d Australian National Dictionary Centre, Meanings and Origins of Australian Words and Idioms, https://andc.anu.edu.au
  18. ^ a b c d e Morris, Edward E. (1898), Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages, London: Macmillan
  19. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Barrack.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/barrack. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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