barred
.
Searchable Lemmata: barrare (L), barrer (AF), barren (ME), barrit (OScots), barred (MdE).
Alternate Forms: barrés, barrata, barratam, barratis.
Definitions and Defining Citations:
1a(psp.)
Decoration;
decorated with bars or stripes (often metal bars).(circa 1215 still in current use)
3. les ditz orfevers furent en le rouge partie barrés de selverwir et poudrés de treys foylles (=trefoils) d’argent ... Item, pur foyll’ a diaprer a getter sur le royne - v.s.
Accounts.
[AND Goldsmiths (196) 1334/1370]
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: Yes
Body Parts: N/A.
1b(psp.)
Decoration;
in a heraldic sense, a field divided by horizontal bars of alternating colour. See also barry.(circa 1450)
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: Yes
Body Parts:
Etymological Evidence:
Definite, past-participle-as-adjective from the ME verb barren 'to bar', which in a textile sense could mean 'to apply bars as decoration', hence barred = 'covered in bars, decorated with bars'. The Modern English verb bar can have the same sense.
The word is therefore the exact counterpart of French barré 'barred' which was borrowed into English as barry (q.v.). at the end of the medieval period; in post-medieval English it is used only in the heraldic sense; MED has one citation of ME barry to mean 'decorated with strips of metal foil' in a treatise on cookery.
WF: Derivation
Etym Cog:
References:
