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barm

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barm¹

  • /bɑːm/ UK
  • /bɑɹm/ US

Rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)m

Where it comes from

From Middle English barm, barme, berm, bearm, from Old English bearm (“lap; bosom”), from Proto-West Germanic *barm, from Proto-Germanic *barmaz (“lap; bosom”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear”). Cognate with German Barm (“lap; bosom”).

noun barms

  1. dialectal, obsolete bosom
  2. dialectal, obsolete lap

barm²

  • /bɑːm/ UK
  • /bɑɹm/ US

Rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)m

Where it comes from

From Middle English berme, berm, from Old English beorma, from Proto-West Germanic *bermō (“yeast; barm”); related to the dialectal Low German Bärm (“yeast”), from Middle Low German barm, berm. The cake sense is possibly a shortened form of barmcake, which would be made with yeast as described in that sense, or possibly it is from the Irish bairín breac, a type of bread.

noun barms

  1. countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable Foam rising upon beer or other malt liquors when fermenting, used as leaven in brewing and making bread; yeast. [A]nd sometimes make the drink to bear no barm.
  2. countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable A small, round, flat individual loaf or roll of bread.

barm³

  • /bɑːm/ UK
  • /bɑɹm/ US

Rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)m

Where it comes from

From Middle English bermen, from the noun (see above).

verb barms · barming · barmed

  1. dialectal, obsolete To spurge; foam

Translations

Every language

noun foam rising upon beer, etc., when fermenting

Françaismousse

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Cite this
MLA

"barm." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/barm. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

barm. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/barm

Chicago

"barm." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/barm.

BibTeX
@misc{barm_2026,
  title = {barm},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/barm},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}