barrow

barrow¹ burial mound, hill

Etymology

The burial mound is inherited from Middle English berwe, earlier bergh,^[6][1] inherited from Old English beorg, Anglian berg, hill, mound,^[7][6][8] from Proto-Germanic *bergaz.^[7][4][9] It is cognate with Old Saxon berg and Old High German berg (“mountain”) (modern German Berg), Middle Dutch berch (modern Dutch berg), Old Norse bjarg (“rock, mountain”) and Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹 (bairgahei, “hill country”).^{[6][7][1][10]} Outside Germanic, Barnhart and Orel compare Old Irish brí (“hill”) and Welsh bryn (“hill”), and trace the group to Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“high”).^{[6][11][7][12]} The same root gives borough and the second part of iceberg.^[2][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mountain or hill: Old English, in the translation of Orosius;^[8] Barnhart finds the Old English word about 725, in Beowulf.^[6] The sense of a mound raised over a grave is also Old English, in Ælfric's Joshua.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the word meant a mountain or hill as well as a grave mound.^[8][7] The sense "hill" was applied to ever lower rises and died out after 1661, surviving only in hill names such as Cadon Barrow in Cornwall or Whitbarrow in Lancashire.^[8][3][1] Barnhart notes that the word was rarely used in literary English after the mid-15th century,^[6] and Etymonline that it was obsolete by about 1400 except in place names and south-western dialect; modern archaeology revived it for ancient grave mounds.^[7][6] In Johnson's day it was described as a Cornish word for a hillock over old burials.^[14] The English Dialect Dictionary records it in the north and west for a hill or a heap of stones, often in place names.^[15] The compound barrow-wight, a spirit haunting a grave mound, is recorded by 1869, in Magnusson and Morris's translation of the Grettis saga.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 725 – beorg, hill, mound, in Beowulf.^[6]
• Old English – mountain, hill (obsolete after 1661 except in names); grave mound.^[8]
• before 1387 – Middle English bergh, in a version of Piers Plowman.^[6]
• before 1425 – berwe, hill, mound.^[6]
• 1869 – barrow-wight.^[7]
• 1869 – dialect, a mound or heap.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large mound of earth or stones raised over a grave in ancient times; a tumulus.^[1][8][3]
2. A hill or mountain; now only in the names of hills in England.^[1][8][3]

barrow² castrated boar

Etymology

The castrated boar is inherited from Middle English barow,^[1][12] inherited from Old English bearg, also bearh,^[8][16][2] from Proto-Germanic *barugaz.^[10][11] It is cognate with Old High German barug, Middle Dutch barch, Dutch barg and Old Norse bǫrgr (“castrated boar”).^{[8][3][10][2]} The OED knows no cognates outside Germanic,^[8] but Merriam-Webster, Klein and Kroonen compare a Slavic word for a hog or castrated boar, and Merriam-Webster and Klein link the group with borian (“to bore”) and so with bore.^[1][2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A castrated boar: Old English, in the Lindisfarne Gospels;^[8] Bosworth-Toller glosses bearg as a castrated boar or barrow pig.^[16]

Semantic evolution

From 1547 the word was commonly used in the compounds barrow-hog and barrow-pig.^[8] It is now dialectal in British English,^[8][3] and the English Dialect Dictionary records it for a gelded pig from Yorkshire to Cornwall.^[15] Merriam-Webster narrows it to a male hog castrated before it is sexually mature.^[1]

Timeline

• Old English – a castrated boar.^[8]
• 1547 – barrow-hog, barrow-pig.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A male hog castrated before it reaches sexual maturity.^[1]
2. (British dialect) A gelded pig.^[3][8][15]

barrow³ handcart, wheelbarrow

Etymology

The handcart is inherited from Middle English barewe,^[8][7][6] which points to an inherited from Old English *bearwe (“basket, barrow”),^{[8][7][1][12]} from Proto-Germanic *barwǭ,^[11][9] formed on the base of beran (“to bear, carry”) and so related to bear and bier.^[8][4][3][2] Barnhart cites meoxbearwe (“basket for carrying dung”) and bærwan (“baskets”) as Old English evidence.^[6] It is cognate with Old Norse barar (“hand-bier”) and Middle High German bere (“hand-barrow”).^[11][8][1] Etymonline traces the base to Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”).^[7] Weekley thought the later meaning may have been influenced by a French dialect word for a wheelbarrow.^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

A frame with handles at each end, on which two people carry a load: about 1300, in a life of Thomas Becket;^[8][18] Barnhart notes the earlier barwer, a maker of barrows (1264).^[6] The original hand-barrow had no wheel and needed two people to carry it.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart finds barowe for a wheelbarrow in 1335,^[6] while the OED's first record of the one-wheeled barrow pushed by one man is from before 1420, in Hoccleve.^[8] Hoad dates the handbarrow to the 14th century and the wheelbarrow to the 15th.^[9] The contents of a barrow, a barrowful, is recorded from 1602, in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor;^[8] from 1768 the word was used in and around London for the costermonger's two-wheeled handcart.^[8][19] The verb, to carry in a barrow, follows in 1674.^[8][15] In northern English dialect that's not my barrow means "that's not my business".^[19]

Timeline

• 1264 – barwer, maker of barrows.^[6]
• c. 1300 – a frame carried by two people, a hand-barrow.^[8][7]
• 1335 – a wheelbarrow.^[6]
• before 1420 – a one-wheeled barrow.^[8]
• 1602 – a barrowful.^[8]
• 1674 – verb, to carry in a barrow.^[8]
• 1768 – a costermonger's two-wheeled handcart.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wheelbarrow.^[1][19]
2. A handbarrow, a frame with handles at each end carried by two people.^[1][19][8]
3. (chiefly British) A light two-wheeled handcart pushed by hand, especially one used by a street seller: a fruit seller's barrow.^[1][19]
4. The amount a barrow holds.^[19][8]

Verb

1. To carry in a barrow.^[8][15]

Word family

• wheelbarrow
• handbarrow
• barrowful
• barrow-boy