Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian berd (East Frisian bārd ), Middle Dutch baert (Dutch baard ), Old Saxon bard- (in unbardhaht beardless; Middle Low German bārt ), Old High German bart , part (Middle High German bart , German Bart ), and further with Old Church Slavonic brada (with metathesis), Lithuanian barzda , Old Prussian bordus , classical Latin barba (with assimilation of consonants); further etymology uncertain, perhaps < a suffixed form of the presumed Indo-European base of bere n.¹, or perhaps a loanword from a non-Indo-European substrate language. Compare also forms in the Germanic languages of the second element of halberd n., probably ultimately < the same Germanic base; compare also the apparently related Germanic base of brerd n.Evidence in North and East Germanic. Existence of this word in North Germanic is indicated by use of Old Icelandic barð in the sense ‘beard’ as the second element of ethnonyms and personal names (see below); the usual word for a beard in Old Icelandic is skegg (see skeg n.¹). It is unclear whether Old Icelandic barð edge, brim, ship's prow shows a specific sense development of this word or is rather from the same Indo-European base as board n. For possible evidence for the word in East Germanic, compare Crimean Gothic bars beard, in which it has been suggested that the final -s is an error for -t . The Germanic word was also borrowed into Finnish as parta beard, although it is impossible to determine whether the borrowing was early or late (and hence its proximate source). Use in names. The base is also used as an element in Germanic personal names, as e.g. early Scandinavian (runic: Sweden) ahbaþr (= Hagbarðr , literally ‘frost-bearded one’, a byname of Oðinn; compare Langobardic Acupardus ), Old Icelandic Langbarðr , literally ‘long-bearded one’ (also in plural as an ethnonym: see below), Langobardic Isenbardo , literally ‘ice-bearded one’. Compare also the ethnonym classical Latin Langobardi (Tacitus), the name of a Germanic-speaking tribe who conquered Italy in the 6th cent., apparently a borrowing < Langobardic (see Lombard n.¹; compare also Langobard n.). Development of senses. For the association with age or maturity implied in sense 1b, compare similar use of beardless adj. 1 and frumberdling n. With the semantic development from ‘beard, hair or bristles on the face’ to use denoting hook-shaped projections (see sense 11), compare parallel development at barb n.¹ With application to undesirable wool at the edge of a fleece (see sense 15) compare beard v. 2.

Etymology: < beard n. Compare earlier bearded adj.Notes on senses. With uses relating to clipping or trimming at sense 2, compare Anglo-Norman and Middle French barber to shave (13th cent. in Anglo-Norman: see barb v.), which shows parallel development from the French noun for ‘beard’. With use in sense 2a with specific reference to the trimming of wool, compare Anglo-Norman barder (early 15th cent. in an apparently isolated attestation in the Anglo-Norman version of quot. 1429-30 at sense 2a), and also post-classical Latin berdare , bardare (beside barbare ) to clip (wool) (all from the first half of the 15th cent. in British sources). Compare also later bard v.² In sense 3 originally arising from earlier use of the noun in phrases conveying opposition or confrontation, as e.g. in (also to) a person's beard at beard n. Phrases 1; with the semantic development compare face v. Notes on phrases. In the phrase to beard the lion in his den and variants, with allusion to 1 Samuel 17:35, which relates how David pursued a lion that had stolen a lamb, caught it by its lower jaw (Vulgate mentum; Coverdale (1535) beerde, King James (1611) beard), and killed it, shortly before his fight with Goliath. Compare the following earlier instance of to beard the lion in non-figurative use with reference to this story:1649 J. Barford Paraphrastical Medit. Isaiah 55. & Psalm 51. 21 A stripling small that seemed but a boie, Did beard the Lion, and a Bear destroie.