burled

Speculative, The word may well be ultimately derived from bur(r)e (q.v.) 'coarse hair, cloth', via its diminutive burel 'coarse cloth' (q.v.). It is first found in continental Old French sources c. 1235 (in Huon de Mery's 'Li Tournoiemenz Anticrit': 'bis burelées'). Some dictionaries (e.g. Tresor de la Langue Francaise) derive it directly from burel + adjectival suffix, thus, bur(e)lé 'having the characteristics of burel' came to mean 'striped'. However, it is not at all clear that burel was of this nature; see citations and discussion s.v. Alternatively, bure (q.v.), of which burel is a diminutive, could mean 'strip, band of cloth' and this may have influenced the sense; this seems to be the origin of the continental Old French verb boureler 'to apply a strip or band of cloth or material, to apply a band, to border' (see Godefroy, Lexique de l'ancien français s.v.). Note also the citation in the present Lexis under bure sense 1 in which that word is equated with Latin benda. Complicating the matter is the existence of Latin burellatus (q.v.), of apparently the same meaning. If that word is not simply a Latinization of the French (it is first attested in Insular Latin at almost exactly the same time), it may be from Lat. 'barratus' (DMLBS barrare, sense 2: 'banded, striped'), + diminutive suffix '-ellus' + corruption of the root vowel a > u, perhaps influenced by 'burel'; the present French and English words would therefore be derived from the Latin. The present word is found in the MED as both berle, a direct borrowing from French into English, and burled, past participle reformulated with an English ending in place of French -é. This may suppose a Middle English verb burl 'to apply a strip, to be decorated with stripes', but no such verb is otherwise attested; ME burl (see burl 1) meant 'to remove burls (i.e. knots of material) from cloth or garments'. The heraldic usage of the word overlaps (and has been influenced by) barry (q.v.) 'having bars' and related terms. See also burlure.