Forms: 1–9 bere, 6 beir, 6–8 beare, beer, 7 bar, 8– bear. [OE. bęre (masc.):—OTeut. *bariz- (neut.), found in Gothic in the derivative barizeins, adj. ‘made of barley.’ The thematic of OTeut. was mistaken for the inflexional z of the nom. masc., and the noun became masc. in OE. and in ON. bar-r: cf. awe.]
1. Barley: the original English name, in later times retained only in the north, and esp. in Scotland; hence spec. applied to the coarse variety (Hordeum hexastichon or tetrastichon), with six (or four) rows of grain in its ear, till lately chiefly cultivated in the north; also distinguished as bear-barley and bigg. Knocked bear: pounded barley.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., John vi. 9. Fife hlafas bero and tuoeʓe fisces.
c. 975. Rushw. G., ibid., Fif hlafas of bere.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram. (Z.), 31. Ordeum, bere.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 13506. Tua fisches and fiue laues o bere.
1340. Ayenb., 141. Þe asse of þe melle … ase bleþeliche berþ bere ase huete.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VII. x. 521. A Boll of Bere for awcht or ten … sawld wes þen.
c. 1570. Leg. Bp. S. Andr., in Scot. Poems 16th C., II. 324. To crave there debtis; For kaill, caudle, and knocked beir.
1570. Holinshed, Scot. Chron. (1806), I. 8. Abundance of barleie which the Scots call beir.
1772. Pennant, Tours Scotl. (1774), 245. Thatched with the Straw of bear pulled up by the roots.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 152. Bear-barley or big, which consists of four rows in the ear.
1820. Scott, Monast., i. The feuars raised tolerable bear.
2. attrib., as in bear-awns, -bannock, -bread, -corn, -flour, -meal; bear-seed, the seed or sowing (obs.) of bear. See also BEAR-BINE; and cf. BARN, BARTON.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Luke iii. 17. Clænseð ber-ern vel bereflor his.
c. 1550. Description of Pedder Coffeis (Bann. MS.). And beir bonnokis with thame thay tak.
1587. Acts Jas. VI. (1814), 447 (Jam.). Thairefter the Sessioun … to ryse and vacance be for the beirseed during the moneth of Maij.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Espelta, beere corne Spelta, zea.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 559. The Beare corn or bearded Far.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 100. Where pinch’d with want the Bar bread thou shalt eate.
1753. Scots Mag., XV. 54/2. Bear-meal 7d.
