bairn means A child or baby. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 84 out of 100.
bairn is pronounced /bɛərn/.
Why “bairn” is a great word
A child, particularly in the dialect of Scotland and the north of England. From Scots bairn, from Middle English bern, barn, from Old English bearn ("child, son, descendant"), from Proto-West Germanic *barn, from Proto-Germanic *barną ("child"); a doublet of barn. Unlike the neutral, standard "child" or the formal, biological "offspring," bairn is colloquial, intimate, and steeped in the soil of a particular place. It is the sturdy weight of a toddler asleep on a shoulder during a long kirk service, the cheerful shout echoing off wet cobbles in a close, the small hand trustfully slipped into a larger one on a windswept brae—a word that carries not just a meaning, but a hearth, a landscape, and the quiet pride of a culture holding its own.
Etymology
Borrowed from Scots bairn, from Middle English bern, barn, from Old English bearn, from Proto-West Germanic *barn, from Proto-Germanic *barną. Doublet of barn. Compare West Frisian bern.
noun
- A child or baby.“She moved about the country like a ghost, gathering herbs in dark loanings, lingering in kirkyairds, and casting a blight on innocent bairns.”
verb
- To get (someone) pregnant.“Go and kick the man that bairned your Nancy.”