Etymograph

English

barely

Barely comes from Old English bærlīċe ‘publicly, openly’, from bær ‘bare, unconcealed’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰosós.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰosós1‘bare’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bazaz1‘bare’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*baʀ1‘bare’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150bær2‘bare’
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150bærlīċe3‘publicly’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500baarly3
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1661barely3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Old English bær
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old English bærlice
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English barely
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist: “Now that fire do's not alwayes barely separate the…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰosósWiktionary, Old English bær‘bare’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bazazWiktionary, Old English bær‘bare’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*baʀWiktionary, Old English bær‘bare’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150bærWiktionary, Old English bærlice‘bare’
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150bærlīċeWiktionary, English barely‘publicly’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500baarlyWiktionary, English barely
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1661barelyWiktionary, English barely. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist: “Now that fire do's not alwayes barely separate the…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with barely, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Germanic *bazaz ‘bare, naked’

  • barren ← bareyne ← baraigne ← *baʀ

1 more relative in the full family tree

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Today it means

adv By a small margin.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “barely”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Old English bær, Old English bærlice. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *bʰosós / barely