bard
pronunciation
How to pronounce bard in British English:
UK [bɑ:d]
How to pronounce bard in American English:
US [bɑrd]
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- Noun:
- a lyric poet
- an ornamental caparison for a horse
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- Verb:
- put a caparison on
Word Origin
- bard
- bard: [14] Bard is of Celtic origin. A prehistoric Old Celtic *bardos produced Scottish and Irish Gaelic bárd and Welsh bardd, which meant ‘poet-singer’. It appears to have been the Scottish form which introduced the word into English, in the sense ‘strolling minstrel’. The modern, more elevated meaning ‘poet’ is 17thcentury.
- bard (n.)
- mid-15c., from Scottish, from Old Celtic bardos "poet, singer," from PIE root *gwer- "to lift up the voice, praise." In historical times, a term of contempt among the Scots (who considered them itinerant troublemakers), but one of great respect among the Welsh. All vagabundis, fulis, bardis, scudlaris, and siclike idill pepill, sall be brint on the cheek. [local Scottish ordinance, c. 1500]Subsequently idealized by Scott in the more ancient sense of "lyric poet, singer." Poetic use of the word in English is from Greek bardos, Latin bardus, both from Gaulish.
Example
- 1. For dame liz , as for the bard , life was but a stage
- 2. The image shows every wrinkle on the playwright 's face and the figure 's haunted stare is radically different from existing images which purport to be of the bard .
- 3. Jonathan cott , the editor of a recent collection of bob dylan interviews , said the motives of the gravel-voiced bard were frequently impenetrable .