The story
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*bardalaus“beardless”
- Old English · inherited frombeardlēas“beardless”
- Middle English · inherited frombērdlēs
- English todaybeardless
From Middle English bērdlēs, from Old English beardlēas (“beardless”), from Proto-West Germanic *bardalaus (“beardless”), equivalent to beard + -less. Cognate with Scots berdles (“beardless”), Saterland Frisian boartloos (“beardless”), West Frisian burdleas (“beardless”), Dutch baardeloos (“beardless”), German Low German baartlos (“beardless”), German bartlos (“beardless”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.