barn

n. pl. börn, [Ulf. barn; O. H. G. parn; A. S. bearn; Scot. and North. E. bairn; cp. bera and Lat. parère]:—a bairn, child, baby. This word, which in olden time was common to all the Teut. idioms, was lost in Germany as early as the 13th century (Grimm, s. v.); in the South of England it went out of use at an early time, and was replaced by ‘child;’ even the Ormulum uses barn only four times, else always ‘child.’ In North. E. bairu is still a household word, and freq. in popular Scottish writers, Burns, Walter Scott, etc. In the whole of Scandinavia it is in full and exclusive use; the Germ. ‘kind’ is in Icel. entirely unknown in this sense, v. the funny story Ísl. Þjóð. ii. 535; (‘kind’ in common Icel. means a sheep.) In Danish barn is the only word which, like the Icel., changes the radical vowel in pl. into ö (börn). Proverbs referring to barn; barnið vex en brókin ekki; þetta verðr aldri barn í brók; bráð er barnslundin (barnæskan); nema börn hvað á bæ er títt; allir hafa börnin verið; því læra börnin málið að það er fyrir þeim hatt; tvisvar verðr gamall maðrinn barn; bragð er at þá barnið finnr; snemma taka börn til meina; Guð gefr björg með barni, cp. Eggert (Bb.) 1. 14; sex born, dætr þrjár ok þrjá sonu, Nj. 30, Ísl. ii. 198, Vsp. 36; eiga þrjá sonu barna, Fms. xi. 43; og svíkjast um að eiga börn, Eggert (Bb.) 1. 14; vera með barni, to be with child, Fms. ii. 212, i. 57, 68, Ísl. ii. 197; fara með barni, to go with child, Nj. 130; frá blautu barni, from a child, Fms. iii. 155; unni honum hvert barn, every child, i. e. every living creature, loved him, i. 17; hvert mannsbarn, every man: metaph. (rare), offspring, Niðrst. 10: barn, barnið gott, börn, barnið mitt (τέκνον, τέκνα) is with many a favourite term of endearment in talking with another. Látum líða og bíða, börn, Pál Vid. in a popular ditty: eptirlætisbarn, a pet, spoilt child; olbogabarn, a hard-treated child; óskabarn, a child of adoption; sveinbarn, a boy; meybarn, a girl; ungbarn, a baby.