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bar

Etymology and origin of the French word bar

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inherited borrowed derived
English bar
French bar

bar1 drinking place

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1833 (bar-room); 1857 (bar)
Borrowed from
English bar
Ultimate origin
French (barre)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /baʁ/[1]
  • IPA (Canada): /bɑʁ/[1]

Forms

bar m (plural bars)[1]

Etymology

The drinking place is borrowed from English bar, a clipping (1857) of bar-room (in French in 1833), an Anglo-American word for a place where people drink standing at the counter.[2][3][4][1] English itself had the short form by 1788.[2] The English word had been borrowed in the 12th century from French barre, and like it had many senses: the bar of a counter, then the counter (1475) and the place where one drinks (1592).[2][3][5] Bloch and Wartburg explain that there is often a sort of rail between the counter and the customers.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first used of American places: bar-room in 1833, bar in 1857.[2][3] The GLLF cites the Revue des Deux Mondes for 1837.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Also gallicized for a while as barre (1853), the short form soon drove out bar-room.[2] From its borrowing it has suggested luxury, as distinct from the ordinary café; before the end of the 19th century it was applied to any place serving drinks in the same way, in theatres, ships, hotels and private houses.[2] By metonymy it names the counter itself (1928: prendre un verre au bar, tabouret de bar).[2] In African French it is a public place where one can also dance.[2]

Timeline

  • 1833 – Bar-room.[3][2]
  • 1853 – The gallicized barre.[2]
  • 1857 – Bar.[2][3]
  • 1928 – The counter itself.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A bar, a place where drinks are served at a counter, drunk standing or sitting on high stools: faire la tournée des bars, bar-tabac, a café with a tobacconist's counter.[4][6]
  2. The counter itself: prendre un verre au bar; by extension, a home bar.[4][2]

Word family

  • bar-tabac
  • piano-bar
  • resto-bar
  • barman
  • barmaid

bar2 sea bass

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1180–1200, Aliscans
Borrowed from
Middle Dutch baerse
Ultimate origin
Middle Dutch (baerse)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /baʁ/[1]
  • IPA (Canada): /bɑʁ/[1]

Forms

bar m (plural bars)[1]

Etymology

The fish is borrowed from Middle Dutch baerse (“perch; sea bass”) (also barse),[8][2][3][5][9] related to Dutch baars, German Barsch (“perch”) and English barse.[5][1] Wiktionary derives Old French bars from *bars or Old Dutch, from Proto-Germanic *barsaz (“perch”); the final ⟨-s⟩ was taken for the Old French nominative ending and dropped.[1] The Dutch word is linked with borstel (“bristle, brush”) and German Bürste (“brush”): the fish is named for the hard spines of its dorsal fins.[8][2]

Barbier separated the heraldic sense, which he took from Latin barbus (“barbel”), and Meyer-Lübke lists the word under that Latin noun as well as under the Germanic one; the TLFi rejects the distinction.[8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Aliscans (1180–1200) lists saumons et bars “salmon and bass”.[8][2]

Semantic evolution

In heraldry it was used by the end of the 13th century for a fish shown upright and slightly curved: Escut de geulles a deus bars portoit “he bore a shield gules with two bars”.[8][11] In France it competes with the southern name of the same fish, loup.[2][6] In African French it is the common name of a large Atlantic and Indian Ocean fish, the tassergal.[2]

Timeline

  • 1180–1200 – The fish, Aliscans.[8]
  • Late 13th century – In heraldry, Chastelain de Coucy.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax, also called loup in Mediterranean France.[8][6][1]
  2. (heraldry) A fish shown upright and slightly curved.[2][8]
  3. (Africa) The bluefish (tassergal).[2]

bar3 unit of pressure

Confidence
Established
Formation
Coinage
First attested
1914
From
Ancient Greek βάρος
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek (βάρος)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /baʁ/[1]
  • IPA (Canada): /bɑʁ/[1]

Forms

bar m (plural bars)[1]

Etymology

The unit is a coinage made in 1906 by the Norwegian physicist and meteorologist Vilhelm Bjerknes, after barie (1889),[2][4] from Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”).[3][4][1] Rey takes it rather from the adjective βαρύς (barús, “heavy”), the source of baryton and the prefix baro-.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is recorded in French from 1914;[2][4] a 1917 issue of the Larousse mensuel defines it as a unit of pressure equal to a million units of the CGS system, that is a million dynes per square centimetre.[7]

Semantic evolution

Its adoption brought the names of its submultiples, above all millibar (1914), long the usual unit of atmospheric pressure in weather forecasts, beside centibar and décibar, English had them from 1914 too.[2] In 1918 French meteorologists decided to express barometric readings in units of pressure rather than in millimetres of mercury.[7]

Timeline

  • 1889 – Barie.[4]
  • 1906 – Bjerknes coins the name.[2]
  • 1914 – Bar and millibar in French.[2][4]
  • 1917 – Definition in the Larousse mensuel.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (physics) A unit of pressure equal to 10⁵ pascals, used especially in meteorology.[4][1]

Word family

  • millibar
  • barre

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  7. ^ a b c d Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  9. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 71a
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Bar.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/bar. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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