Baird

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Scottish family name, most famously held by the engineer John Logie who pioneered early mechanical television
2. A surname of Scottish origin, best known through the television pioneer John Logie, whose experiments in the 1920s launched broadcast television
3. A Scottish surname, notably that of an inventor who demonstrated the first working television system to the public in the late 1920s

Etymology: "Baird" is a Scots form of "bard," a poet or singer, especially one who composed and recited verse about heroes and history. In its Scottish use, it kept the older sense of a professional poet-performer. The source is Scottish Gaelic "bàrd," which came from Old Irish "bárd," and ultimately from a Proto-Celtic root, *bardos. The spelling "baird" reflects how Scots pronounced the vowel, and it is likely the form that later became a common surname. Many people named Baird probably descended from families who were known as poets or reciters, though the surname's origins are hard to pin down with certainty. Used as a word, "baird" now survives mainly in Scottish dialect writing and in the family name.