Etymologically
Log in

beard

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 14:51. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /bɪəd/, US /bɪrd/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English berd, inherited from Old English beard (“beard”),[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *bardaz,[2][3] source also of Dutch baard and German Bart.[2][3][5] Pokorny relates it to Old Church Slavonic brada, Lithuanian barzda and perhaps Latin barba (“beard”),[2][3][5][6] but Boutkan rejects this on phonetic grounds and suggests a non-Indo-European substrate word.[2] Barnhart notes that the modern spelling developed from Middle English berd and matches Old English only by accident.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The hair on the chin and lower face: about 825, in the Vespasian Psalter;[7][3] as the surname Berd from 1165.[3]

Semantic evolution

A similar hairy growth on an animal is from about 1300.[7] In spite of one's beard, in direct defiance, is from 1330.[7] The verb, to grow a beard, is from about 1300,[2] and to confront boldly comes from Middle English phrases such as rennen in berd, oppose openly (about 1200).[2][6] Word Origins traces to beard the lion in his den (mid-18th century) to David's seizing a lion by the beard in 1 Samuel 17:35.[6] The tuft of bristles on barley or wheat, an awn, is a botanical sense.[8][9] In modern slang a beard is a person who accompanies another to hide their homosexuality.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 825 – the beard.[7]
  • 1165 – Berd, a surname.[3]
  • c. 1300 – an animal's beard; the verb.[2]
  • 1330 – in spite of one's beard.[7]
  • mid-18th century – beard the lion.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The hair that grows on a man's chin, cheeks and throat.
  2. A similar growth on an animal, or a tuft of bristles on a plant such as barley.
  3. (slang) A person who acts as a cover for another.

Verb

  1. To confront boldly.

Word family

  • bearded
  • beardedness
  • beardless
  • beardlessness
  • beardlike
  • barber
  • barbel

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins