"B" Word Origins

Baptiste

French

Patronymic surname, borrowed from French Baptiste. This surname is mostly found in Haiti.

baptize

Late Latin

From Old French baptiser, from Late Latin baptizāre, from Greek baptizein ("to dip, immerse").

bapu

Hindi

Borrowed directly from Hindi बापू (bāpū), meaning "father" — also famously used as a respectful nickname for Mahatma Gandhi.

bar

Vulgar Latin

From Old French barre ("beam, bar, barrier"), from Vulgar Latin barra, of uncertain further origin.

bara

Japanese

Shortened from Japanese barazoku ("rose tribe"), the name of a pioneering Japanese gay men's magazine, itself borrowing "rose" as a coded term for gay men in postwar Japan.

Barabbas

Aramaic

From Aramaic bar ʾabbā ("son of the father").

barack

Origin

From Hungarian barack ("apricot, peach"), shortened from barackpálinka, a compound with pálinka ("brandy").

baragouin

Origin

Borrowed from French baragouin (“unintelligible speech or writing”).

Barak

Hebrew

From Hebrew bārāq, meaning "lightning."

Baran

Origin

From Belarusian Бара́нь (Baránʹ).

barb

Latin

From Old French barbe ("beard"), from Latin barba — the same root as "beard" and "barber."

Barbados

Portuguese

From Portuguese barbados ("bearded ones"), from barba ("beard") — supposedly describing the island's fig trees, whose long hanging roots looked like beards to early European sailors.

Barbara

Latin

From Latin Barbara, feminine of barbarus, from Greek barbaros ("foreign, strange") — the same root behind the modern word "barbarian."

barbarian

Greek

From Greek barbaros ("foreign, non-Greek"), possibly imitating the sound of unfamiliar languages — much like the English phrase "blah blah blah."

barbaric

Latin

From Latin barbaricus, from Greek barbarikos, from barbaros ("barbarian, foreigner").

barbarism

Greek

From the same root as barbarian and barbaric, ultimately Greek barbaros ("foreigner").

barbarous

Latin

From Latin barbarus ("foreigner, savage"), from Greek barbaros.

Barbary

Berber

From "Berber" plus the suffix "-y," likely influenced by the older adjective barbary meaning "barbarian, non-Christian."

barbecue

Spanish

From Spanish barbacoa, from Taíno barbakoa, meaning a raised wooden framework the Taíno people used for sleeping or curing meat.

barbell

Origin

Blend of bar + dumbbell. The piercing is named after the exercise equipment, because of the visual resemblance.

barber

Latin

From Old French barbeor, from barbe ("beard"), from Latin barba.

barbershop

Origin

A straightforward compound of barber and shop.

barbie

Origin

The "barbecue" sense is simply a clipped, informal form of that word with the "-ie" diminutive ending. The doll is an unrelated trademark, a pet form of Barbara.

Barbs

Origin

Clipping of Barbara + -s (hypocoristic suffix).

Barca

Latin

From Latin Barca, from Punic 𐤁𐤓𐤒 (Baraq), from Phoenician 𐤁𐤓𐤒 (baraq, “lightning”), ultimately from Proto-Semitic *baraḳ-.

Barcelona

Origin

Ultimately borrowed from Catalan Barcelona.

Barclay

Origin

Variant of Berkeley.

bard

Proto-Celtic

From Scottish Gaelic bàrd, via Old Irish, ultimately from a Proto-Celtic word for "poet" — related to an ancient root meaning "to praise."

bardo

Origin

From Tibetan bar do, literally "interval between two [states]."

bare

Old English

From Old English bær ("bare, naked, open"), a very old Germanic word found in similar forms across German, Dutch, and Scandinavian languages.

bare with me

English

An error for bear with me, in which bear carries the old sense 'to endure or put up with'.

bareback

Origin

A straightforward compound of bare + back — riding directly on the horse's back.

barefaced

Origin

Perhaps an alteration of barefast (compare shamefast); or from bare + faced. Compare typologically cheeky; Italian sfacciato (< Latin ex- + faciēs); French effronté, Italian sfrontato (< Latin ex- + frōns), Polish czelny (< czoło).

barefoot

Old English

From Old English bærfōt, a straightforward compound of "bare" and "foot" going back over a thousand years.

barefooted

Origin

From bare + footed.

barely

Old English

From Old English bærlīċe, built from "bare" plus the adverb-forming suffix "-ly" — originally meaning something closer to "openly" before it shifted to mean "just barely."

bareskin

Origin

From bare + skin.

barf

Origin

Origin uncertain — most likely an imitative word, meant to sound like the act itself.

bargain

Old French

From Old French bargaignier, tracing back to a Germanic root meaning "to borrow or lend" — the sense shifted over time from lending to trading and negotiating.

bargainer

Origin

From bargain + -er.

bargainous

Origin

From bargain + -ous.

barge

Ancient Greek

From Old French barge, tracing back through Latin to an Ancient Greek word for an Egyptian boat, ultimately from Egyptian — a long journey for a small word.

barghest

Origin

Probably inherited from Northern Middle English *berghgast, *barghgast, from bergh, bargh (“barrow”) + gast (“ghost”). Alternative hypotheses that first element is burgh (“town”) or bere (“bear”) lack semantic motivation.

bargirl

Origin

From bar + girl.

bari

Origin

A clipped form of "baritone."

baric

Origin

From bar + -ic. Derived from the Ancient Greek word "pressure": barikos (βαρικός), from βάρος (báros, “weight, pressure”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”).

baring

Origin

Possibly related to Bering.

barista

Italian

Borrowed from Italian barista, meaning "bartender," itself from "bar" plus an Italian suffix for a person's occupation.