Barn

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: [bɑɹn]

Definitions

1. A large agricultural building used for storing hay, grain, equipment, and animals such as horses or cattle
2. A sizable structure typically found on farms that is utilized for the storage of crops, feed, tools, and various livestock like cows and horses
3. An expansive facility on agricultural land designed for housing agricultural products, machinery, and livestock including dairy and draft animals

Etymology: Old English speakers built the word "bereærn" from two parts: "bere", meaning barley, and "ærn", a dwelling or shelter. A barn was, quite literally, a place to house barley. The first element survives in the grain itself, and the second, though now lost as a standalone word, sits behind the sense of rest and shelter in the family of terms it belongs to. Over centuries the compound wore down in speech. Middle English forms such as "bern" and "barn" show the middle sound dropping away, and the word gradually came to mean any large storehouse for crops, then the big farm building we know today. Its meaning widened as farms diversified, while the grain connection stayed in the name. The word also has a twin. A separate Old English word, "bearn", meaning child or offspring, gave us "bairn", a Scots and northern English word for a child. The two words look alike and sound nearly identical, yet they come from entirely unrelated roots: one stores the harvest, the other the next generation.

Synonyms: shed, stable, granary