byre

English

Etymology

From Middle English bire, bier, byr, from Old English bȳre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaɪɚ/
• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)

Noun

byre (plural byres)

1. (chiefly British) A barn, especially one used for keeping cattle in.
   • 1935, T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, Part II:

     It was here in the kitchen, in the passage,
     In the mews in the harn in the byre in the market-place [...]

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     ’Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’

   • 1999, Neil Gaiman, Stardust, page 9 (2001 Perennial Edition):

     The visitors came up the narrow road through the forest from the south; they filled the spare-rooms, they bunked out in cow byres and barns.

Synonyms

• cowbarn, cowhouse

Coordinate terms

• cowshed

Translations

a barn, especially one used for keeping cattle

• Arabic: حَظِيرَة f (ḥaẓīra), زَرِيبَة f (zarība)
• Bulgarian: обор (bg) m (obor)
• Chinese: 牛舍 (zh) (niúshè)
• Chuvash: вите (vit̬e)
• Cornish: bowji m
• Crimean Tatar: azbar
• Danish: stald (da) c
• Dutch: koestal (nl) m
• Esperanto: bovejo (eo)
• Finnish: navetta (fi)
• French: étable (fr) f
• German: Kuhstall (de) m
• Greek: βουστάσιο (el) n (voustásio)

  Ancient: μάνδρα f (mándra)

• Hebrew: רֶפֶת (he)
• Hungarian: tehénistálló (hu)
• Irish: cró beithíoch m, bóitheach m
• Italian: vaccheria f
• Latvian: kuts
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fjøs (no) m or n

  Nynorsk: fjøs m or n

• Portuguese: vacaria f
• Russian: хлев (ru) m (xlev), коро́вник (ru) m (koróvnik)
• Scottish Gaelic: bàthach f
• Spanish: vaquería (es) f, vaqueriza (es) f
• Volapük: (cattle) veteralecek (vo), (cows) kunalecek, (cows) bubalecek
• Welsh: beudy (cy) m

Anagrams

• Brey, Byer, Erby, yerb

Old English

Etymology 1

From Proto-West Germanic *burī (early *burijaz), from Proto-Germanic *buriz (“son”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈby.re/

Noun

byre m (nominative plural byras or byre)

1. child, son, descendant; young man, youth

Declension

Declension of byre (strong i-stem)

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	byre	byras
accusative	byre	byras
genitive	byres	byra
dative	byre	byrum

Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic *buriz (“hill, elevation”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈby.re/

Noun

byre m (nominative plural byras or byre)

1. mound

Etymology 3

From Proto-Germanic *buriz (“favourable wind”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈby.re/

Noun

byre m (nominative plural byras or byre)

1. strong wind, storm

Descendants

• Middle English: bir, bire, bur, byre
  • English: birr

Etymology 4

From Proto-Germanic *burjaz (“opportunity”), related to Old English byrian (“to come up, occur”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈby.re/

Noun

byre m (nominative plural byras or byre)

1. time, opportunity; occurrence

Derived terms

• ambyre (“favorable, fair”)

Etymology 5

Probably related to Old English būr. Perhaps identical to the word for a farm or dwelling in German -büren, Dutch -buren.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbyː.re/

Noun

bȳre n (nominative plural bȳru)

1. stall, shed, hut

Derived terms

• cūbȳre m (“cow-byre, cow-shed”)

Descendants

• English: byre

Scots

Etymology

From Old English bȳre, but possibly influenced in usage by Gaelic "bò" meaning a cow.

Noun

byre (plural byres)

1. A cattle shed or outhouse

Derived terms

• byreman, cattleherd
• byregraip, a dung fork.