Etymograph

English

bar

Bar comes from Middle English barre, from Old French barre ‘beam, barrier’, from Vulgar Latin *barra, of uncertain origin.

  1. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*barra1reconstructed
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400barre1‘beam, bar, gate, barrier’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500barre1
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1675bar1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English bar
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […]: “Muſt I new bars to my own joy create?”.

Lineage

  1. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*barraWiktionary, English barreconstructed
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400barreWiktionary, English bar‘beam, bar, gate, barrier’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500barreWiktionary, English bar
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1675barWiktionary, English bar. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […]: “Muſt I new bars to my own joy create?”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- ‘to bear, carry’

different, offer, difference, birth, reference, transfer, prefer, broad, bread, relative, suffer, translation, relation, fortune, relate, burden, bear, extraordinary, differ, referendum, frustration, bore, translate, fury, breeze, referee, fertility, borne, fertile, berth, broom, phosphate, extravagant, fret, phosphorus, euphoria, defer, confer, infer, baron, 155 more

through Vulgar Latin *barra ‘barrier’

embargo, barrack, 1 more

through Old French barre ‘beam, bar, gate, barrier’

barrel, barrette

Another origin of bar

  1. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500barrare‘to bar’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400barrer
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500barren‘to bar’
  4. Englishtodaybar

Another origin of bar

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷreh₂-‘heavy’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEβάροςbáros‘weight’
  3. Englishtodaybar

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”), coined circa 1900.

Today it means

noun A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “bar”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Vulgar Latin *barra / bar

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