Baron
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baron¹
- /ˈbæɹən/ Australia, UK
- /ˈbaɹən/ British, Northern England, Southern, Standard
- /ˈbaɾən/ Scotland, Wales
- /ˈbæɹən/
- /ˈbɛɹən/
- /ˈbɛɹən/ New Zealand
Sounds like barren · Rhymes with -æɹən
Where it comes from
From Middle English baroun, from Old French baron, from Latin barōnem, from Proto-West Germanic *barō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear”). Cognate with Old High German *baro (“human being, man, freeman”), Old English bora (“a man who bears responsibility, one who is in charge, a ruler”), and perhaps to Old English beorn (“man, warrior”). Used in early Germanic law in the sense of "man, human being".
A Celtic origin has also been suggested; see the quote under sense 3 of Latin barō. However, the OED takes the hypothetical Proto-Celtic *bar- (“hero”) to be a figment.
noun barons
- The male ruler of a barony.
- A male member of the lowest rank of English nobility (the equivalent rank in Scotland is lord).
- A person of great power in society, especially in business and politics. railroad baron
- A prisoner who gains power and influence by lending or selling goods such as tobacco. The first thing a baron does is to accumulate a supply of tobacco. He spends every penny he can earn on laying it in […]
- A baron of beef, a cut made up of a double sirloin. Such portentous appetites had Queequeg and Tashtego, that to fill out the vacancies made by the previous repast, often the pale Dough-Boy was fain to bring on a great baron of salt-junk, seemingly quarried out of the solid ox.
- Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Euthalia.
- A husband. baron and femme
Baron²
Where it comes from
* As a French, English, Jewish, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Czech, German, Spanish (Barón), Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, and Breton surname, all from the noun baron. Compare Barron, Lebaron.
* Also as a French surname, from several places in France Le Baron.
* As an Italian (Veneto) surname, variant of Barone.
* Also as a Czech surname (Baroň), from a pet form of Bartoloměj.
* As an Irish surname, Anglicized from Ó Bearáin; see Barnes.
* General Slavic surname: Anglicization of Polish Baran (“Aries”), Ukrainian Баран (Baran), etc.
proper noun
- A surname from French
- A surname from German
- A surname from Polish
- A surname from Ukrainian
