Etymograph

English

barrow

Barrow comes from Old English beorg ‘mountain, hill, mound, barrow, burial place’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- ‘to rise up, ascend’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰerǵʰ-‘to rise up, ascend’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰérǵʰos‘hill’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bergaz‘hill, mountain’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*berg‘hill, mountain’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150beorg‘mountain, hill, mound, barrow, burial place’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500berwe
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1961barrow

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰerǵʰ-‘to rise up, ascend’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰérǵʰos‘hill’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bergaz‘hill, mountain’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*berg‘hill, mountain’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150beorg‘mountain, hill, mound, barrow, burial place’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500berwe
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1961barrow

Earliest quotation: 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, Beowulf: “Will you ask our oldest warriors to build me…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- ‘to rise up, ascend’

force, comfortable, fort, borough, burgess, bourgeois, burglar, brie, burgh, forcible, brahmin, burg, borgo, brahmana, bourguignon, broch, 22 more

through Old English beorg ‘mountain, hill, mound, barrow, burial place’

berry, bergh

Another origin of barrow

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰer-‘to bear, carry’root as named
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*barwǭ‘stretcher, bier’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*barwāreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150bearwe‘basket, handbarrow’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500barowe
  6. Englishtodaybarrow

Another origin of barrow

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*barugaz‘barrow, castrated boar’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*barug‘barrow, castrated boar’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150bearg‘boar’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500barow
  5. Englishtodaybarrow

Another origin of barrow

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150beorgan‘to protect’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500berwen‘to protect’
  3. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500*berwereconstructed
  4. Englishtodaybarrow

From Middle English *berwe, *borwe, *bergh (attested in hamberwe and berwham (‘horse-collar’)), from Middle English berwen (‘to protect’), from Old English beorgan (‘to protect’).

Today it means

noun A mountain.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- / barrow

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