barre

Etymology

It is borrowed from French barre (“bar”),^[2][3][4][5] from Old French barre, from Vulgar Latin *barra,^[6] which the American Heritage Dictionary takes to be of Gaulish origin.^[6] Etymonline notes that a Gaulish source has been proposed but that the OED calls it discredited,^[7] and Ayto says that nothing is known beyond the Vulgar Latin form.^[8] The same French word was borrowed much earlier as bar.^[3][1] The related musical term barré is the past participle of barrer (“to bar”).^[2][5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In music, a capo, or the forefinger laid across the fingerboard as one: 1876, in Stainer and Barrett's Dictionary of Musical Terms.^[2] The same dictionary has the first record of the adjective barré, of a chord played with all the strings stopped by the forefinger,^[2][7] though Merriam-Webster dates barré in that sense to 1856.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In music it named the finger used as a capo, or the capo itself,^[2][3] and is now used mainly for a chord played in this way, a barre chord.^[4] In dance it is the horizontal rail at about waist height that dancers hold to keep their balance while exercising: the Shorter Oxford dates this sense to the mid-20th century,^[3] and Merriam-Webster gives 1936 for barre in it.^[5] The OED records the dance sense under its entry for bar.^[2]

Timeline

• 1876 – in music, a capo, or the forefinger used as one.^[2][3]
• 1936 – in ballet, a handrail for exercises.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A horizontal rail at about hip or waist height, fixed to a wall, that ballet dancers hold while exercising: The class began with twenty minutes at the barre.^[4][5][3]
2. In guitar and lute playing, the forefinger laid across all or several strings to stop them at once, as a capo does; also, a chord played in this way.^[2][3][4]

Verb

1. To play a chord by laying a finger across several strings; also spelled barré.^[4]

Related words

• bar
• barré
• barrier

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press