Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/bair

This Proto-West Germanic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-West Germanic

Alternative reconstructions

• *baiʀ

Etymology

Unknown. Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *baizaz (compare Old Norse bassi (“boar”)). Likely to be related to Proto-Brythonic *basio- ~ *baðio- (modern Welsh baedd, which compare for possible cognates), but solid Indo-European cognates outside of West Germanic and Celtic are lacking. The word could have been borrowed from a pre-Indo-European (substrate) population of the area by Germanic and/or Celtic-speaking populations. Alternatively, it could be cognate with Lithuanian baĩsas (“terrible apparition”), from Proto-Balto-Slavic *baiˀsás (“evil spirit”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to become afraid”).

Noun

*bair m

1. boar

Inflection

Masculine a-stem
	Singular
Nominative	*bair
Genitive	*bairas
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	*bair	*bairō, *bairōs
Accusative	*bair	*bairā
Genitive	*bairas	*bairō
Dative	*bairē	*bairum
Instrumental	*bairu	*bairum

Hyponyms

• *ebur (“wild boar”)

Descendants

• Old English: bār
  • Middle English: bar, bor
    • Scots: bair
    • English: boar
• Old Frisian: *bār
  • West Frisian: bear
• Old Saxon: bēr
  • Middle Low German: bêr
    • Low German: Behr
• Old Dutch: *bēr; bēro
  • Middle Dutch: bere, beer
    • Dutch: beer (“boar”)
• Old High German: bēr, pēr, pair
  • Middle High German: bēr
    • Central Franconian: Bier
      • Luxembourgish: Béier
    • German: Bär (“boar”) (obsolete)

Further reading

• Albertas Steponavičius, Diachronic Linguistics and Etymology (2006), page 111:

  Etymologies of the names for 'wild boar'

  […]

  ModE boar < OE bar < WGmc *bairaz; cf. OHG per, Du. beer.