beard

pronunciation

How to pronounce beard in British English: UK [bɪəd] word uk audio image

How to pronounce beard in American English: US [bɪrd] word us audio image

Noun:

the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face
a tuft or growth of hairs or bristles on certain plants such as iris or grasses
a person who diverts suspicion from someone (especially a woman who accompanies a male homosexual in order to conceal his homosexuality)
hairy growth on or near the face of certain mammals
tuft of strong filaments by which e.g. a mussel makes itself fast to a fixed surface
Verb:

go along the rim, like a beard around the chin

Word Origin

beard: beard: [OE] Old English beard came from West Germanic *bartha, which was also the source of German bart and Dutch baard. A close relative of this was Latin barba ‘beard’, which gave English barb [14] (via Old French barbe), barber [13] (ultimately from medieval Latin barbātor, originally a ‘beard-trimmer’), and barbel [14], a fish with sensitive whisker-like projections round its mouth (from late Latin barbellus, a diminutive form of barbus ‘barbel’, which was derived from barba).=> barb, barber

beard (n.): Old English beard "beard," from West Germanic *barthaz (cognates: Old Frisian berd, Middle Dutch baert, Old High German bart, German bart), seemingly from PIE *bhardh-a- "beard" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic brada, Lithuanian barzda, and perhaps Latin barba "beard"). The Greek and Roman Churches have long disputed about the beard. While the Romanists have at different times practised shaving, the Greeks, on the contrary, have strenuously defended the cause of long beards. Leo III. (795 AD) was the first shaved Pope. Pope Gregory IV., after the lapse of only 30 years, fulminated a Bull against bearded priests. In the 12th century the prescription of the beard was extended to the laity. Pope Honorius III. to disguise his disfigured lip, allowed his beard to grow. Henry I. of England was so much moved by a sermon directed against his beard that he resigned it to the barber. Frederick Barbarossa is said to have been equally tractable. [Tom Robinson, M.D., "Beards," "St. James's Magazine," 1881] Pubic hair sense is from 1600s (but neþir berd "pubic hair" is from late 14c.); in the 1811 "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," the phrase beard-splitter is defined as, "A man much given to wenching" (see beaver).

beard (v.): c. 1300, "to grow or have a beard," from beard (n.). The sense of "confront boldly and directly" is from Middle English phrases such as rennen in berd "oppose openly" (c. 1200), reproven in the berd "to rebuke directly and personally" (c. 1400), on the same notion as modern slang get in (someone's) face. Related: Bearded; bearding.