Forms: α. 1–3 bearn, 2–3 bern, bærn, (4 byern,) 7 berne, bearn. β. 1–9 barn (3 barrn, barin, 4 baron), 4–7 barne. γ. 5–9 bairn. [Common Teutonic: OE. bearn = OFris. bern, OS., OHG., MHG., Goth., ON., Da., Sw. barn, (MDu. baren):—OTeut. *barno-(m), f. beran to bear. Lost in G. and Du.; also in southern Eng., where the modern repr. of OE. bearn would have been bern (cf. fern) or barn (cf. arm, warn). In fact, berne survived in the south to 1300, barn still survives in northern English, and was used by Shakespeare; bairn is the Scotch form (cf. fairn, airm, wairn), occasionally used in literary English since 1700. It is doubtful whether the berne, bearn of some 17th-c. Eng. writers was a survival of the early southern form, or a variant spelling of bairn. The pl. bærn in Ormin is the ON. börn, hence it is probable that the northern singular barn is as much of ON. as of OE. origin.]
A child; a son or daughter. (Expressing relationship, rather than age.)
α. Beowulf, 1063. Beowulf maþelode, bearn Ecʓþéowes.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. v. 35. Ðæt ʓe sin eowres Fæder bearn.
c. 1160. Hatton G., ibid. Eowres Fader bærn.
a. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 131. Alle þe bernes · þe ben boren of wifes bosem.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 272. Recabes sunen … helle bearnes.
c. 1300. Wright, Lyric P., xviii. 58. Suete Ihesu, berne best.
1621. B. Jonson, Gipsies Metam. Have care of your bearns.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. ii. V. v. Many fair lovely bernes to you betide.
a. 1688. Dk. Buckhm., Pump Parl., Wks. 1705, II. 99. Our Bearns and Wives.
β. 830. in Thorpe, Diplom., 465. His barna sue huelc sue lifes sie.
c. 1200. Ormin, 8039. Herode king let slæn þa little barrness. Ibid., 6808. Þatt wærenn Noþess þrinne bærn.
a. 1275. Prov. Ælfred, 589, in O. E. Misc., 135. Þu ard mi barin dere.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 310. To se hir aud hir barn.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 904 (Fairf.). In sorow þou sal þi barnys bere [v.r. berns, childer, children].
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (1841), 182. Alas, ywhy was my baron born.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., xviii. 6. That blisfulle barne in Bedelem was born.
1577. Harrison, England, II. v. 108. To this daie, even the common sort doo call their male children barnes here in England, especiallie in the north countrie.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., III. ii. 70. Mercy on’s, a Barne? A very pretty barne; A boy, or a Childe I wonder?
1687. De la Pryme, Diary (1869), 11. No one scarce believes that she [the queen] is realy with barn.
1711. J. Greenwood, Eng. Gram., 276. Bearn, Barn, a Son, or Offspring (a Word common with the Scotch, and our North-Countreymen).
1864. Tennyson, North. Farmer, 6. Bessy Marris’s barne! tha knaws she laäid it to meä.
γ. 1513–75. Diurn. Occurr. (1833), 67. Efter them wes ane cart with certane bairnes.
1549. Compl. Scot., xv. 123. It is fors to me & vyf and bayrns to drynk vattir.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Poems (1821), 18. Burnt bairn with fyre the danger dreidis.
a. 1626. Beaum. & Fl., Love’s Cure, III. i. Has he not well provided for the bairn?
1703. Penn, in Pa. Hist. Mem., IX. 241. I wish … I had it for one of my poor bairns.
1714. Swift, Corr., Wks. 1841, II. 527. I wish I could return your compliments as to my wife and bairns.
1857. H. Reed, Lect. Brit. Poets, x. II. 25. That deep dark-eyed Scottish bairn was Robert Burns.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. vi. 483. Harthacnut too … was at least a kingly bairn.
Comb. (all north. dial.) Bairn-dole, child’s portion; bairn-like a., child-like, adv. in child-like manner; † bairn-part, child’s portion; bairn(s)-bed, womb; † barn-site, anxiety about children; bairn’s play, child’s play; bairn’s-maid, -woman, nurse-maid, nurse.
1858. Trench, Parables, xxiv. (1877), 393. The portion of goods that falleth to me; his *‘bairndole,’ as they would call it in Yorkshire.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., IX. xx. 111. That suld noucht han been done *barnelike.
1533. Wills & Inv. N. C. (1860), 112. That my sonne and … my dowghter have their *barne partes of my goodes.
1549. Compl. Scot., 67. Ane vomans *bayrnis bed [printed hed].
1863. Provinc. Danby, s.v., She’s got a swelling on the *bairn bed.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11625. Ne haf yee for me na barn-site.
1863. Reader, 8 April, 386. Who was *bairn’s-maid to a daughter of the great philosopher.
1637. Rutherford, Lett., 88 (1862), I. 226. To make it a matter or *bairn’s play.
1823. Galt, Entail, I. i. 2. Who, in her youth, was *bairnswoman to his son.
Hence (north. dial.) Bairnie, little child; Bairnish a., childish; Bairnishness.
