Etymology

barren

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Today it means: Not bearing children, childless; hence also unable to bear children, sterile. Full definition →

Middle English bareyne ← Anglo-Norman baraigne ← Germanic
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*bazaz“bare”
  2. Frankish · derived from*baʀ“bare; barren”
  3. Germanic · derived from
  4. Anglo-Norman · derived frombaraigne
  5. Middle English · inherited frombareyne
  6. English todaybarren

From Middle English bareyne, from Anglo-Norman baraigne, baraing (“sterile; barren”), of obscure origin; probably from a Germanic language, perhaps Frankish *baʀ (“bare; barren”), from Proto-Germanic *bazaz (“bare”). If so, a cognate of English bare.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*bazaz all →

barethreadbare

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.