Meanings
plural barques · alternative bark
- A sailing vessel of three or more masts, with all masts but the sternmost square-rigged, the sternmost being fore-and-aft-rigged
On being told, however, that the Norwegian barque Daphne was about to leave An-peng for Tamsui, I had my things taken on board, and we set sail a few hours later.
1873 (published 1889, 1996), William Campbell, An Account of Missionary Success in the Island of Formosa, SMC Publishing Inc., page 279 - poeticA sailing vessel or boat of any kind.
Barque of phosphor On the palmy beach…
1922 (first published 1923-09-07), Wallace Stevens, Fabliau of Florida, from collection Harmonium
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAny small sailing vessel.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Egyptianbꜣjr“transport ship, type of fish”
- Demotic Egyptianbr
- Copticⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ“small boat”
- Ancient Greekβᾶρις
- Vulgar Latinbarica
- Late Latinbarca
- Italianbarca
- Middle Frenchbarque
- Middle Englishbarke“boat”
- Englishbarque
From Middle English barke (“boat”), borrowed from Middle French barque, itself borrowed from Italian barca or a Medieval Latin equivalent, from Late Latin barca, from Vulgar Latin barica, from Ancient Greek βᾶρις (bâris) 'Egyptian boat', from Coptic ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ (baare, “small boat”), from Demotic Egyptian br, from Egyptian bꜣjr (“transport ship, type of fish”), b-bA-A-y:r*Z1-P1. Doublet of bark, barge and baris. Possibly cognate with Spanish barco.
More words from Middle English, Middle French, Italian
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan bricbarca, veler
- bricbarcasailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
- velerpoetic, any sailing vessel or boat
Czech bark, bárka
- barksailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
- bárkaarchaic, any small sailing vessel
- bárkapoetic, any sailing vessel or boat
Danish bark
- barksailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
Dutch zeilboot, bark
- zeilbootsailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
- barksailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
- zeilbootjearchaic, any small sailing vessel
- barkarchaic, any small sailing vessel
- schuitarchaic, any small sailing vessel
- zeilbootpoetic, any sailing vessel or boat
- schuitpoetic, any sailing vessel or boat
Esperanto barko
- barkosailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
Finnish parkki, pursi
- parkkisailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
- pursiarchaic, any small sailing vessel
- pursipoetic, any sailing vessel or boat
- venhopoetic, any sailing vessel or boat
French barque
- barquesailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
Greek μπάρκο
- μπάρκο (bárko)sailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
Hebrew בַּרְקָה, בַּארְק
- בַּרְקָה (barka)sailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
- בַּארְק (bark)sailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
Hungarian bark
- barksailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
Māori pāka
- pākasailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
Norwegian Bokmål bark
- barksailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
Polish bark
- barksailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
Russian барк, па́русник
- барк (bark)sailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
- па́русник (párusnik)sailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
Spanish bricbarca
- bricbarcasailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
Swedish bark, barkskepp
- barksailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
- barkskeppsailing vessel, all masts but sternmost square-rigged
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with barque
Sounds the same
Cite this entry
barque. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barque
“barque.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barque. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “barque,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barque.
Source: barque on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.