O.E.
bær (W.Saxon),
ber (Anglian) "handbarrow, litter, bed," from W.Gmc.
*bero (O.H.G.
bara, O.Fris.
bere, M.Du.
bare), from base
*ber- and thus related to the O.E. verb
beran "to bear" (see
bear (v.)), making a
bier anything used for carrying, only later limited to funerary sense. Since 1600, spelling influenced by Fr.
bière, from O.Fr.
biere, from Frankish
*bera, from the same Gmc. root.