bairn
Americannoun
noun
Usage
What does bairn mean? Bairn is a Scottish or Northern English word for child.
Etymology
Origin of bairn
before 900; Middle English bern, barn, Old English bearn; cognate with Gothic, Old Norse, Old High German, Old Saxon, barn, Old Frisian bern, Middle Dutch baren, Albanian me barrë pregnant; akin to Lithuanian bérnas boy, fellow, bear 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Tunes hiv been whirlin aroon in the air an in ma heid an hairt since I wis a bairn, an I wis composing tunes an songs even then,” she wrote in her book.
From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2022
Her boy would have been two in May 1971 - the same age as the unknown bairn.
From BBC • Sep. 28, 2022
Twa gods guides me: the ane of tham is blin, Yea and a bairn brocht up in vanitie; The next a wife ingenrit of the sea, And lichter nor a dauphin with her fin.
From Slate • Feb. 14, 2012
And when they get it, songs such as the breathless U Know Me ought to destroy dancefloors quicker than you can say "by 'eck you yampie bairn".
From The Guardian • Dec. 11, 2010
But we heard a coyote howl upwind and we heard a cow bawling for her late weaned bairn.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
