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barn

[bahrn]

Origin

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noun

a building for storing hay, grain, etc., and often for housing livestock.

a very large garage for buses, trucks, etc.; carbarn.

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verb (used with object)

to store (hay, grain, etc.) in a barn.

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to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

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Origin:
before 950; Middle English bern, Old English berern (bere (see barley¹) + ern, ǣrn house, cognate with Old Frisian fīaern cowhouse, Old High German erin, Gothic razn, Old Norse rann house; compare ransack, rest¹)

Related forms

barn·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun Physics.

a unit of nuclear cross section, equal to 10⁻²⁴ square centimeter. Abbreviation: b

Origin:
1945–50; special use of barn¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To Barn

Collins

World English Dictionary

barn¹ (bɑːn)

—n
1.	a large farm outbuilding, used chiefly for storing hay, grain, etc, but also for housing livestock
2.	(US), (Canadian) a large shed for sheltering railroad cars, trucks, etc
3.	any large building, esp an unattractive one
4.	(modifier) relating to a system of poultry farming in which birds are allowed to move freely within a barn: barn eggs

[Old English beren, from bere barley + ærn room; see barley¹]

barn² (bɑːn)

—n
	b a unit of nuclear cross section equal to 10^--²⁸ square metre

[C20: from barn¹; so called because of the relatively large cross section]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

barn

O.E. bereærn "barn," lit. "barley house," from bere "barley" (see barley) + aern "house," metathesized from *rann, *rasn (cf. O.N. rann, Goth. razn "house," O.E. rest "resting place").

EXPAND

"Barley was not always the only crop grown as the data recovered at Bishopstone might suggest but it is always the most commonly represented, followed by wheat and then rye and oats." [C.J. Arnold, "An Archaeology of the Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms," 1988, p.36]

Another word for "barn" in O.E. was beretun, "barley enclosure" (from tun "enclosure, house"), which accounts for the many Barton place names on the English map, and the common surname. Barn door figurative for "broad target" and "great size" since 1540s.

COLLAPSE

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Easton

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