Etymology

born

B3O1R1N1

Today it means: Having from birth (or as if from birth) a certain quality or character; innate; inherited. Full definition →

Middle English born, boren, borne, iborne ← Old English boren, ġeboren ← Proto-West Germanic *boran
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born · verb, adjective1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰer-
  2. Proto-Germanic*buranaz
  3. Proto-West Germanic*boran
  4. Old Englishboren, ġeboren
  5. Middle Englishborn, boren, borne, iborne
  6. English todayborn

From Middle English born, boren, borne, iborne, from Old English boren, ġeboren, from Proto-West Germanic *boran, *gaboran, from Proto-Germanic *buranaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *beraną (“to bear, carry”), equivalent to bear + -en. Cognate with Saterland Frisian gebooren (“born”), West Frisian berne (“born”), Dutch geboren (“born”), German geboren (“born”), Swedish boren (“born”).

born · noun, verb2

Dialectal variant of burn.

Born · proper noun3

A variant of Bourne.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishboren all →

borne

Proto-Germanic*beraną all →

bearbearing

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.