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
Eventually he was able to establish that the woman we believed was the sister was the likely mother of 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
"It's going to take a lot of persuading, because we bred him ourselves and he's our bairn," he said.
From The Guardian • Feb. 19, 2011
“What is the matter?” he asked; “all the sunshine is gone. Do you really wish the bairn to go? Will it annoy you if she is left behind?”
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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.
