Obs. exc. dial. Also 4 byrne, 5–7 burne, 8 Sc. birn. Contracted form of BURDEN.
c. 1375. Barbour, St. Thadea, 231. Al my synnis ful & sere I band as it a byrne hade bene.
a. 1400. Chester Pl., I. (1843), 65. Isaake … taketh a burne of stickes and beareth after his father.
1595. B. Chappell, in Farr’s S. P. (1845), II. 465. The earth of late hath shakt herself, As wearie of her sinfull burne.
1614. Scourge of Venus (1876), 40. Weeping much her burne to beare.
a. 1774. Fergusson, Farmer’s Ingle, in Poems (1845), 38. How big a birn maun lie on Bassie’s back.
1855. E. Waugh, in Lanc. Sk., 50. Gathering … ‘a burn o’ nettles’ to put in their broth.
1880. West. Cornw. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Burn, twenty-one hakes (probably a burden).
Hence burn-rope, a rope for carrying a burden.
