barrow
pronunciation
How to pronounce barrow in British English:
UK [ˈbærəʊ]
How to pronounce barrow in American English:
US [ˈbæroʊ]
-
- Noun:
- the quantity that a barrow will hold
- (archeology) a heap of earth placed over prehistoric tombs
- a cart for carrying small loads; has handles and one or more wheels
Word Origin
- barrow
- barrow: [OE] Barrow for carrying things and barrow the burial mound are two distinct words in English. The barrow of wheelbarrow is related to bear ‘carry’. The Old English word, bearwe, came from the same Germanic base, *ber- or *bar-, as produced bear, and also bier. Barrow the burial mound, as erected by ancient peoples over a grave site, is related to German berg ‘mountain, hill’. The Old English word, beorg, came from prehistoric Germanic *bergaz.=> bear, bier
- barrow (n.1)
- "vehicle for carrying a load," c. 1300, barewe, probably from an unrecorded Old English *bearwe "basket, barrow," from beran "to bear, to carry" (see bear (v.)). The original had no wheel and required two persons to carry it.
- barrow (n.2)
- "mound," Old English beorg (West Saxon), berg (Anglian) "barrow, mountain, hill, mound," from Proto-Germanic *bergaz (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old High German berg "mountain," Old North bjarg "rock"), from PIE root *bhergh- (2) "high, elevated" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic bregu "mountain, height;" Old Irish brigh "mountain;" Welsh bera "stack, pyramid;" Sanskrit b'rhant "high," brmhati "strengthens, elevates;" Avestan brzant- "high," Old Persian bard- "be high;" Greek Pergamos, name of the citadel of Troy). Obsolete except in place-names and southwest England dialect by 1400; revived by modern archaeology. In place-names used of small continuously curving hills, smaller than a dun, with the summit typically occupied by a single farmstead or by a village church with the village beside the hill, and also of burial mounds. [Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names] Meaning "mound erected over a grave" was a specific sense in late Old English. Barrow-wight first recorded 1869 in Eirikr Magnusson and William Morris's translation of the Icelandic saga of Grettir the Strong.
Example
- 1. Sell rubber wheel and wheel barrow .
- 2. Mind if I barrow a blanket ?
- 3. Unable to find a job after university , muhammad bouazizi moved to a big city and tried to get by , selling vegetables from a barrow .
- 4. From high-jinx in a wheel barrow to slumbering in a hammock , staff at the borneo animal sanctuary where they live do their best to keep them entertained .
- 5. The first could be the case if the product you are selling to these " senior types " is quite pukka , meaning that a barrow boy isn 't the right person to sell it .