birrus

Or byr·rus

[bir-uhs]

noun

plural

birri 

1. a hooded cloak of coarse wool, a common article of apparel in the later Roman Empire.

Word History and Origins

Origin of birrus¹

< Late Latin, perhaps < Celtic *birros short (> Welsh byrr, MIr berr ); for sense shirt

Example Sentences

Lord Parkinson said the copper alloy piece, discovered in Roxwell, Essex, wears a hooded cloak known as a Birrus Britannicus that people wore in Roman Britain.

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LL. birrettum, berretum, a cap, dim. of L. birrus, birrum, a cloak to keep off rain, cf.

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Their statement, however, that it is “pretty clear” that the cope is derived from the Roman lacerna or birrus is very much open to criticism.

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We do not even know what the appearance and form of the birrus were; and the question of the origin of the cope is not whether it was derived from any garment of the time of the Roman Empire, and if so from which, but what garment in use in the 8th and 9th centuries it represents.

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The Standard Dictionary, however, points to burrago, rough, and relates it indirectly by cross references to birrus, a thick, coarse woolen cloth worn by the poor during the thirteenth century.

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