barbe

See also: Barbe and barbé

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /baʁb/

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

1. la barbe de trois jours, 2. la moustache, 3. la barbiche, 4. le bouc, 5. les rouflaquettes ou favoris, 6. à la Souvarov, 7. à l'impériale, 8. barbe complète.

Inherited from Middle French barbe, from Old French barbe, from Latin barba, from earlier *farba, from Proto-Italic *farβā, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰeh₂ (“beard”).

Noun

barbe f (plural barbes)

1. beard

   Il a une barbe bien fournie. ― He has a luxurious beard.

   Je vais peut-être me laisser pousser la barbe. ― Maybe I'll let my beard grow.

   Certaines personnes mettent plusieurs années avant d’obtenir une barbe dure, d’autres n’y parvenant jamais.

   Some people take several years before obtaining a strong beard, others never succeed.

   • 1910, Alain, Propos:

     Je regardais hier le buste d’un philanthrope ; c’était une tête à moitié chauve, une barbe en pointe, et l’air d’un sous-chef à son bureau.

     Yesterday I was looking at the bust of a philanthropist; it was a half-bald head, a pointy beard, and the look of a sous-chef at his office.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. longer hair growing on the chin or face of some animals

   La barbe d’une chèvre, d’un bouc.

   The beard of a goat, of a billygoat.

3. barbel (whisker-like sensory organs, located around the mouth of certain fish)

   Les barbes du brochet.

   The barbels of the pike.

4. barb (feather)

   Le duvet est constitué de petites plumes légères dont les barbes ne sont pas enchevêtrées.

   The duvet is made of small, light feathers whose barbs are not tangled.

5. (botany) barb (hair or bristle)
   • 1858, Théophile Gautier, Le Roman de la momie:

     La besogne des bœufs terminée, vinrent des serviteurs qui, armés d’écopes de bois, élevaient le blé en l’air et le laissaient retomber pour le séparer des pailles, des barbes et des cosses.

     The work of the oxen finished, servants came who, armed with wooden scoops, lifted the wheat into the air and let it fall back to separate the straw, the barbs, and the seed pods.

6. (colloquial) a boring thing, a drag

   Quelle barbe ! ― What a bore!

Derived terms

• barbe à papa
• barbe de trois jours
• la barbe
• sainte barbe
• au nez et à la barbe
• dans sa barbe
• parler dans sa barbe
• rire dans sa barbe

Related terms

• barbant
• barbeau
• barbelé
• barbeler
• barbelet
• barbelure
• barber
• barberie
• barberon
• barbet
• barbette
• barbiche
• barbichet
• barbichette
• barbichon
• barbier
• barbifier
• barbille
• barbillon
• barbiste
• barbitiste
• barbiton
• barbouze
• barbu
• barbute
• ébarber
• imberbee

 

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Italian barbero, barbaro.

Adjective

barbe (plural barbes)

1. (of a horse) Barbary

   un cheval barbe ― a Barbary horse, a Barb horse

Noun

barbe m (plural barbes)

1. Barbary horse

   Les barbes d’Abaco étaient une toute petite population de chevaux barbes espagnols sauvages sur les îles Abacos.

   The Abaco Barbs were a very small population of wild Spanish Barb horses on the Abaco Islands.

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

barbe

1. inflection of barber:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “barbe”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• barbe on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr

Friulian

Etymology 1

From Latin barba, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰeh₂.

Noun

barbe f (plural barbis)

1. beard

Etymology 2

From the above term, due to the fact that a beard represents a grown or mature man. Compare Romansh, Italian, and Piedmontese barba, Dalmatian buarba.

Noun

barbe m

1. uncle

See also

• agne

Italian

Noun

barbe f pl

1. plural of barba

Anagrams

• ebbra

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French barbe, from Latin barba, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰeh₂.

Noun

barbe f (plural barbes)

1. beard

Descendants

• French: barbe

Norman

barbe

Etymology

From Old French barbe, from Latin barba, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰeh₂.

Noun

barbe f (plural barbes)

1. (Jersey) beard
2. (Jersey) eaves

Derived terms

• barbe d'gardîngni (“thin beard”)
• barbe d'la reine (“love-in-a-mist”, literally “queen's beard”)
• barbe d'sapeur (“thick beard”)

Related terms

• barbiche

Old French

Etymology

From Latin barba, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰeh₂.

Noun

barbe oblique singular, f (oblique plural barbes, nominative singular barbe, nominative plural barbes)

1. beard

Derived terms

• barbier
  • French: barbier (see there for further descendants)
  • → Middle Dutch: barbier
    • Dutch: barbier (see there for further descendants)
• Anglo-Norman: barbour (see there for further descendants)

Descendants

• Middle French: barbe
  • French: barbe
• Jersey Norman: barbe
• Walloon: båbe

Spanish

Verb

barbe

1. inflection of barbar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative