# beard
## English
### Etymology

* PIE word
* *bʰardʰéh₂
From Middle English berd, bard, bærd, from Old English beard, from Proto-West Germanic *bard, from Proto-Germanic *bardaz (compare West Frisian burd, Dutch baard, German Bart). Cognate further to Latin barba, Lithuanian barzda, Russian борода́ (borodá): the word may date to Proto-Indo-European as *bʰardʰeh₂, *bʰh₂erdʰeh₂. Doublet of barb.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /bɪəd/, [bɪːd]
* (General American) IPA: /bɪɹd/, /biɚd/
* Audio (US):(file)
* (obsolete) IPA: /bɜː(ɹ)d/
* Homophone: beared (cheer–chair merger)
* Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)d, -ɪː(ɹ)d

### Noun

beard (plural beards)
* Facial hair on the chin, cheeks, jaw and neck.
* The cluster of small feathers at the base of the beak in some birds.
** 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 90:At this moment the cock began to play; he stuck out his beard, trailed his wings down by his legs, and made, with great solemnity and wavelike motions of his neck, a few steps forward on the branch, while he stuck up his tail and spread it out like a big wheel.
* The appendages to the jaw in some cetaceans, and to the mouth or jaws of some fishes.
* The byssus of certain shellfish.
* The gills of some bivalves, such as the oyster.
* In insects, the hairs of the labial palpi of moths and butterflies.
* (botany) Long or stiff hairs on a plant; the awn.
    the beard of grain
* Long, hair-like feathers that protrude from the chest of a turkey
** 2022, Jenny McKee, “Let's Talk Turkey Beards”, in Audubon:While all toms—adult male turkeys—have beards, nearly 10 percent of hens also have one, albeit a much stubbier, wispier version.
* A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument, projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily drawn out.
* The curved underside of an axehead, extending from the lower end of the cutting edge to the axehandle.
* That part of the underside of a horse's lower jaw which is above the chin, and bears the curb of a bridle.
* (printing, dated) That part of a type which is between the shoulder of the shank and the face.
* (slang, originally gambling) A fake customer or companion; an intermediary.
** 2024 February 3, Joshua Chaffin, “Glossy new neighbourhood rises from a seedy slice of Miami vice”, in FT Weekend, page 10:To get his way, Roberts employed a bit of developer's cunning: rather than approach Galardi directly, he sent a friend, Alan Meyers, as a “beard”.
** One who helps to conceal infidelity in a monogamous relationship by acting as a cover.
*** 1984, Woody Allen, Broadway Danny Rose, spoken by Danny Rose (Woody Allen):What are you talking about, I should be the beard? I don't wanna be a beard.
** (LGBTQ) A woman who accompanies a gay man, or a man who accompanies a lesbian, in order to give the impression that the person being accompanied is heterosexual.
*** 1991 December 1, Rudy Grillo, “Who's The Top?”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 20, page 8:One could also speculate that Linda also served as Cole's shield (or "beard") against his possibly being disinherited by his disapproving (of sissies) millionaire grandfather and doting mom, both of whom wanted him to be a lawyer.
*** 2004 February 1, Aury Wallington, “The Cold War”, in Sex and the City, season 6, episode 17:Charlotte: Smith is not gay. Miranda: Of course not. Charlotte: So this makes you his beard.
*** 2019 September 16, Harvey Weinstein, quotee, “Harvey Weinstein told Cara Delevingne to ‘get a beard’”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:In an interview with Net a Porter, Delevingne said that “one of the first things Harvey Weinstein ever said to me was, ‘You will never make it in this industry as a gay woman – get a beard.’”

#### Derived terms

* Aaron's beard
* beardage
* beard balm
* beard brush
* beard bug
* beard burn
* beard comb
* beard cream
* beard cut
* bearded
* bearder
* beardfish
* beardgrass
* beard hair
* beardie
* beardie-weirdie
* beardiness
* bearding
* beardish
* beardism
* beardist
* beard itch
* beard kit
* beardless
* beardlessness
* beardlet
* beard lichen
* beardlike
* beardline
* beardling
* beard louse
* beardly
* beard mask
* beard moss
* beard net
* beardo
* beard oil
* beard pen
* beard pencil
* beard rash
* beard roller
* beardruff
* beard-second
* beard-stroking
* beardtongue
* beard tree
* beard trimmer
* beard wax
* beard worm
* beardy
* bee beard
* Blackbeard
* Bluebeard
* bluebeard
* debeard
* dragon's beard candy
* fat beard
* fatbeard
* forkbeard
* goat's-beard
* grandfather's beard
* green-beard effect
* greybeard
* hare's-beard
* hawksbeard
* hawk's-beard
* jaw beard
* Jove's beard
* Jupiter's beard
* legbeard
* Lombard
* longbeard
* Movember beard
* neckbeard
* Ned Kelly beard
* nosebeard
* old man's beard
* Omer beard
* playoff beard
* Redbeard
* seabeard
* Shenandoah beard
* Thor's beard
* treebeard
* tree-beard
* turkey's beard
* unbeard
* Vandyke beard
* whitebeard

#### Translations

Abaza: жакӏьа (žakʲʼa)
Abkhaz: ажакьа (aẑakʲʼa)
Adyghe: жакӏэ (žakʼɛ), (Shapsug) жакӏьэ (žakʲʼɛ)
Afrikaans: baard
Aghul: муджур (mudžur)
Akhvakh: мижелӏу (mižeᵏllu)
Albanian: mjekër (sq) f
Amharic: ፂም (ṣ́im), ጢም (ṭim)
Andi: мигажу (migažu)
Arabic: لِحْيَة (ar) f (liḥya), ذَقْن (ar) m (ḏaqn)
Egyptian Arabic: دقن f (daʔn), لحية f (liḥya)
Moroccan Arabic: لحية f (laḥya)
Aragonese: barba
Aramaic:
Hebrew: דקנא m (diqnā)
Archi: мочӏор (močʼor)
Argobba: ጢም
Armenian: մորուք (hy) (morukʻ)
Aromanian: barbã f
Assamese: দাড়ি (dari)
Asturian: barba (ast) f
Avar: мегеж (megež)
Azerbaijani: saqqal (az)
Bagvalal: нижат (nižat)
Bashkir: һаҡал (haqal)
Basque: bizar (eu)
Bats: please add this translation if you can
Belarusian: барада́ f (baradá)
Bengali: দাড়ি (bn) (daṛi)
Bezhta: баб (bab)
Bhojpuri: 𑂠𑂰𑂜𑂲 (dāṛhī)
Botlikh: please add this translation if you can
Breton: baro m
Budukh: мичӏер (mičʼer)
Bulgarian: брада́ (bg) f (bradá)
Burmese: မုတ်ဆိတ် (my) (muthcit)
Buryat: һахал (haxal)
Carpathian Rusyn: бо́рода f (bóroda)
Catalan: barba (ca) f
Cebuano: bungot
Central Atlas Tamazight: ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵔⵜ f (tamart)
Chamalal: please add this translation if you can
Chechen: маж (maž)
Cherokee: ᎠᎭᏄᎸᏒ (ahanulvsv)
Chichewa: ndevu
Chinese:
Cantonese: 鬍鬚 / 胡须 (wu$^4$ sou$^1$)
Dungan: хўзы (hwzɨ)
Eastern Min: 喙鬚 / 喙须 (chói-chiŭ / ché̤ṳ-siĕu)
Hokkien: 喙鬚 / 喙须 (zh-min-nan) (chhùi-chhiu)
Mandarin: 鬍子 / 胡子 (zh) (húzi), 鬍鬚 / 胡须 (zh) (húxū)
Wu: 牙鬚 / 牙须 ($^6$nga-su)
Chuvash: сухал (suh̬al)
Classical Nahuatl: tēntzontli
Classical Syriac: ܕܩܢܐ m (diqnā)
Coptic: ⲙⲟⲣⲧ f (mort)
Cornish: barv m
Corsican: barba (co) f
Creek: cokhesse
Crimean Tatar: saqal
Czech: brada (cs) f, vous (cs) m
Dalmatian: buarba f
Danish: skæg (da) n
Dargwa: муцӏур (muc̣ur)
Dhivehi: ތުންބުޅި (tun̊buḷi)
Dutch: baard (nl) m
Dzongkha: རྒྱབོ (rgyabo)
Eastern Arrernte: arralte
Egyptian: (ḫbzwt f)
Esperanto: barbo (eo)
Estonian: habe (et)
Even: гургат (gurgat)
Evenki: гургакта (gurgakta)
Faroese: skegg n
Fijian: kumi (fj)
Finnish: parta (fi)
Franco-Provençal: bârba f
French: barbe (fr) f
Friulian: barbe f
Galician: barba (gl) f
Ge'ez: ጽሕም (ṣəḥm)
Georgian: წვერი (c̣veri), წვერ-ულვაში (c̣ver-ulvaši)
German: Bart (de) m
Godoberi: мигяжу, мигажу
Greek: γένι (el) n (géni), γενειάδα (el) f (geneiáda)
Ancient: πώγων m (pṓgōn), γενειάς f (geneiás)
Greenlandic: umik
Gujarati: દાઢી (dāḍhī), દાઢી f (dāḍhī)
Haitian Creole: bab
Hausa: gemu (ha)
Hawaiian: ʻumiʻumi
Hebrew: זָקָן (he) n (zakán)
Hiligaynon: bungot
Hindi: दाढ़ी (hi) f (dāṛhī), दाढी f (dāḍhī)
Hinukh: мошолкӏа (mošolk’a), бошолкӏа (bošolk’a)
Hungarian: szakáll (hu)
Hunsrik: Baart m
Hunzib: please add this translation if you can
Icelandic: skegg (is) n
Ido: barbo (io)
Indonesian: janggut (id), jenggot (id)
Ingush: модж (modž)
Interlingua: barba
Inuktitut: ᐅᒥᒃ (omik)
Iranun: please add this translation if you can
Irish: féasóg (ga) f, meigeall m, ulcha f
Middle Irish: fésóc f
Istro-Romanian: borbĕ f
Italian: barba (it) f
Japanese: 顎鬚 (ja) (あごひげ, agohige), 顎髭 (あごひげ, agohige), 鬚 (ja) (ひげ, hige) (moustache, beard)
Javanese: jénggot
Jeju: 시염 (siyeom) (moustache, beard), 쉬염 (swiyeom) (moustache, beard)
Kabardian: жьакӏэ (kbd) (źakʼɛ)
Kalmyk: сахл (saxl)
Kannada: ಗಡ್ಡ (kn) (gaḍḍa)
Karata: мигаж
Kashmiri: دٲر (dạ̄r), ریش (rēś)
Kashubian: barda f, broda f
Kaurna: marlta
Kazakh: сақал (saqal)
Khinalug: please add this translation if you can
Khmer: ពុកចង្កា (km) (puk cɑngkaa)
Khvarshi: please add this translation if you can
Kituba: mandefu
Komi-Permyak: тош (toš)
Korean: 수염(鬚髥) (ko) (suyeom) (moustache, beard), 턱수염 (ko) (teoksuyeom)
Kriol: wiska
Kryts: please add this translation if you can
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: ڕیش (ckb) (rîş)
Northern Kurdish: rih (ku), rî (ku)
Kyrgyz: сакал (ky) (sakal)
Lak: чӏири (čʼiri)
Lao: ເຄົາ (khao), ມັດສຸ (mat su) (moustache, beard), ໜວດຄາງ (nūat khāng)
Latgalian: buorzda f
Latin: barba (la) f
Latvian: bārda (lv) f
Laz: pimpili
Lezgi: ччуру (č̄uru)
Lingala: ndefu
Lithuanian: barzda (lt) f
Lokono: please add this translation if you can
Lombard: barba f
Low German: Boord m
Luxembourgish: Baart m
Lü: ᦷᦐᧆᧈ (ṅod¹)
Macedonian: брада (mk) f (brada)
Magahi: 𑂠𑂰𑂜𑂲 (daṛhi), 𑂠𑂰𑂜 (daṛh)
Maguindanao: baka
Malagasy: volombava (mg)
Malay: janggut (ms)
Malayalam: താടി (ml) (tāṭi)
Maltese: daqna f
Manchu: ᠰᠠᠯᡠ (salu)
Manx: faasaag f
Maori: kuau, pāhau, paihau, kumikumi
Maranao: gomot
Marathi: दाढी f (dāḍhī)
Massachusett: weeshittoon
Minangkabau: jangguit
Mingrelian: ბჟაკე (bžaḳe), ფრიმული (primuli)
Mon: သော်ပါင်မုင်
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: сахал (mn) (saxal)
Mongolian: ᠰᠠᠬᠠᠯ (saqal)
Nanai: bogakta, gogakta
Navajo: dághá
Nepali: दाह्री (dāhrī)
Ngazidja Comorian: nɗevu pl
Nivkh: ыф (əf)
Norman: barbe f
Northern Sami: skávžá
Norwegian:
Bokmål: skjegg (no) n
Nynorsk: skjegg n
Occitan: barba (oc) f
Odia: ଦାଢ଼ି (or) (dāṛhi)
Okinawan: しちゃふぃじ (sichafiji)
Old Church Slavonic:
Cyrillic: брада f (brada)
Glagolitic: ⰱⱃⰰⰴⰰ f (brada)
Old East Slavic: борода f (boroda), брада f (brada)
Old English: beard (ang) m
Old Norse: skegg n, barð n
Old Prussian: bordus
Oromo: areeda
Ossetian: боцъо (boc’o), зачъе (zaḱ’e)
Ottoman Turkish: صقال (sakal)
Pali: massu n
Pannonian Rusyn: брада f (brada)
Pashto: ږيره (ps) f (ģíra), بمبل (ps) m (bambál)
Pennsylvania German: Baart m, Backebaart m
Persian:
Dari: رِیش (rīš)
Iranian Persian: ریش (fa) (riš), بَلْمِه (balme)
Piedmontese: barba f
Pitjantjatjara: ngaṉkurpa
Plautdietsch: Boat m
Polabian: brödă f, vǫ̇s m
Polish: broda (pl) f
Portuguese: barba (pt) f
Punjabi: ਦਾੜ੍ਹੀ f (dāṛhī)
Rohingya: dari
Romanian: barbă (ro) f
Romansch: barba f
Russian: борода́ (ru) f (borodá), брада́ (ru) f (bradá) (archaic or poetic)
Rutul: мичӏри (mič̣ri)
Sami:
Akkala Sami: сеам (s’eam)
Inari Sami: siämu
Kildin Sami: ся̄м (sjām)
Northern: seamu, njávvi (of an animal)
Skolt Sami: seäm
Southern: skaavtjoe
Ter Sami: ся̄ман (sʼâ̄mân)
Sanskrit: दाढिका (sa) f (dāḍhikā), मासुरी (sa) f (māsurī), श्मश्रु (sa) n (śmaśru)
Santali: ᱥᱳᱫᱨᱳ (sodro)
Sardinian: balba, balva, barba
Saterland Frisian: Boart m
Scottish Gaelic: feusag f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: бра́да f
Roman: bráda (sh) f
Sherpa: རྒྱའུ (rgya'u)
Sicilian: barba (scn), varba (scn) f, varva (scn) f
Sindhi: please add this translation if you can
Sinhalese: යටි රැවුල (yaṭi ræwula)
Slovak: brada (sk) f
Slovene: brada (sl) f
Somali: gadh m
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: broda f
Upper Sorbian: broda f
Spanish: barba (es) f
Sranan Tongo: barba
Sudovian: bardas
Svan: ვა̈̄რე (vǟre)
Swahili: ndevu (sw) pl
Swedish: skägg (sv) n
Sylheti: please add this translation if you can
Tabasaran: муччери (muč̄eri)
Tagalog: balbas (tl), gumi, yangot (thick and heavy), bungot
Taíno: please add this translation if you can
Tajik: риш (tg) (riš)
Tamil: தாடி (ta) (tāṭi)
Tarifit: tamart f
Tatar: сакал (tt) (saqal)
Telugu: గడ్డం (te) (gaḍḍaṁ)
Tetum: timir
Thai: เครา (th) (krao)
Tibetan: རྒྱ་བོ (rgya bo), རྒྱ་མོ (rgya mo), རྒྱ (rgya), ཨོག་ཚོམ (og tshom), ཞལ་ཚོམ (zhal tshom) (honorific)
Tigrinya: ጭሕሚ (č̣əḥmi)
Timucua: please add this translation if you can
Tindi: мижату
Tsakhur: мучӏру (muč̣ru)
Tsez: мешолга (mešolga)
Turkish: sakal (tr)
Turkmen: sakgal
Tuvan: сегел сал (segel sal), сал (sal)
Ubykh: žakʼʲá
Udi: кӏаджух (ḳaǯuꭓ), кӏаьжух (ḳäžuꭓ)
Udmurt: туш (tuš)
Ugaritic: 𐎄𐎖𐎐 (dqn)
Ukrainian: борода́ (uk) f (borodá)
Urdu: داڑْھی f (dāṛhī)
Uyghur: ساقال (saqal)
Uzbek: soqol (uz)
Venetan: barba (vec) f
Vietnamese: râu (vi) (鬍 (vi))
Vilamovian: biöt m
Volapük: balib (vo)
Walloon: båbe (wa) f
Warlpiri: jangarnka
Welsh: barf (cy) f
West Frisian: burd
White Hmong: hwj txwv
Woiwurrung: arra ngurnduk, ngarrin
Wolof: sikkim
Xhosa: indevu class 9/10
Yagnobi: рӣша (riša)
Yakut: бытык (bıtık)
Yámana: yašu
Yiddish: באָרד f (bord)
Yoruba: irùngbọ̀n
Zazaki: erdiş (diq) c
Zhuang: mumh
Zulu: intshebe (zu) class 9/10 :

### Verb

beard (third-person singular simple present beards, present participle bearding, simple past and past participle bearded)
* (intransitive, obsolete) To grow hair on the chin and jaw.
* (transitive) To boldly and bravely oppose or confront, often to the chagrin of the one being bearded.
    Robin Hood is always shown as bearding the Sheriff of Nottingham.
** 1765, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto:Am I to be bearded in my own castle by an insolent monk?
** 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:No admiral, bearded by these corrupt and dissolute minions of the palace, dared to do more than mutter something about a court martial.
** 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:Murphy was a choleric man with a sense of his own importance. He was not to be bearded thus in his own seat of office. He rose with a very red face.
** 1943 December 6, Crockett Johnson, Barnaby:We need all our operatives to insure the success of my plan to beard this Claus in his den...
** 1963, Ross Macdonald, The Chill, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, page 92:. . . I bearded the judge in his chambers and told him that it shouldn't be allowed.
* (transitive) To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard of (a man), in anger or contempt.
* (transitive) To deprive (an oyster or similar shellfish) of the gills.
* (intransitive, beekeeping) Of bees, to accumulate together in a beard-like shape.
* (LGBTQ, slang, transitive, intransitive) Of a gay man or woman: to accompany a gay person of the opposite sex in order to give the impression that they are heterosexual.
** 1993, David Michael Robinson, Mollies are Not the Only Fruit, page 39:Lesbians and homosexual men bearding one another (i.e. providing each other with the public appearance of being heterosexual); […]
** 2017, Hildred Billings, Blown By An Inconvenient Wind:Things got weird after I married Jiro. It's like everyone knows I'm a lesbian who is bearding for her gay best friend so we can be rich one day, but they don't want to be reminded of it.

#### Derived terms

* beard the lion, beard the lion in his den

#### Translations
### See also

* goatee
* hair
* merkin
* moustache, mustache
* pogonophobia
* sideburns, sideboards
* whiskers
* awn

### References

* ↑ Jespersen, Otto (1909) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)‎, volumes I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 13.34, page 365.

### Further reading

* beard on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* beard (companion) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* “beard n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present

### Anagrams

* Debra, Bader, Aberd, Breda, bared, bread, Debar, arbed, ardeb, debar

## Old English
### Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *bard, from Proto-Germanic *bardaz (compare West Frisian burd, Dutch baard, German Bart), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰeh₂ (compare Latin barba, Lithuanian barzda, Russian борода́ (borodá)).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /bæ͜ɑrd/, [bæ͜ɑrˠd]

### Noun

beard m
* beard

#### Declension

Strong a-stem:

#### Derived terms

* beardlēas (“beardless”)
* Heaþubeardan (“Heathobards”)
* wangbeard

#### Descendants

* Middle English: berd, bard, bærd, beord, burd
** English: beard
** Scots: berd, berde, beird
** Yola: bearde
** → Anglo-Norman: berd
** →⇒ Anglo-Norman: barder (verb) (merged with Old French barbier)