birr
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɜː/
ipa: /bɝ/
enpr: bûr
ipa: /bɪr/
ipa: /bøː/
note: Liverpool, fair–fur merger
ipa: /beː/
note: Humberside, Teesside, fair–fur merger
ipa: /bɛː/
homophone: bur
homophone: burr
homophone: Burr (all fern–fir–fur merger)
homophone: bare
homophone: bear (both fair–fur merger)
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)
Forms: form: birrs
Etymology: From Middle English bir (“favorable or strong wind”), from Old English byre (“strong wind, storm”); cognate with Norwegian bør, Icelandic byrr (“sailing winds”), Albanian borë (“snow”), and Polish burza (“storm, thunderstorm”).
Senses: examples: text: Ye'll be sae kind as let me see How this same bird o' yours can flee. T'oblige ye, friend, I winna stand — Syne loos'd the falcon frae his hand. Unhooded, up she sprang wi' birr, While baith stood staring after her.
ref: 1720, Allan Ramsay, “The Lure”, in Poems:
text: Then steer thro' life wi' birr an' vigour
ref: 1789, Sillar, Poems:
text: Your chanter sets us a ' a-steer, Get out your pipes and blaw wi' birr, We'll dance the Highland fling
ref: 1851, William Mitchison, Hand-Book of the Songs of Scotland, page 202:
text: The congregation sang them with such ' birr and go.'
ref: 1894, Dickson, Auld Precentor:
text: The late David Kennedy, the eininent Scottish vocalist, sang it with great birr.
ref: 1901, Robert Ford, Vagabond songs and ballads of Scotland, page 108:
text: Bleak winter reigns, ilk hill's o'erlaid wi' snaw, Cauld frae the north wi' bir the tempests blaw.
ref: 1777 October, Marion, “Marion: A Pastoral”, in Weekly Magazine or Edinburgh Amusement, volume 31, page 63:
glosses: strength, vigor, energy
examples: text: A chaise in full birr came upon her and knocked her down.
ref: 1822, Galt, Provost:
text: And away down, in full birr, to the Duke's gate.
ref: 1828, Moir, Mansie Wauch:
text: With what a birr he made it flee from his hand along the ice.
ref: 1876, Whitehead, Daft Davie:
text: The tither hole, the tither eik, To bang the birr o' winter's anger, And had the hurdies out o' langer.
ref: 1976, David Craig, Scottish Literature and the Scottish People, 1680-1830, page 244:
glosses: The force of movement; rush, impetus, momentum, driving force
examples: text: O' the sounds o' love and joy, There's nane sae pleasant as the birr o' Scotland's spinnin' wheel.
ref: 1837, Nicoll, Poems:
text: Close by the ingle sat his widow Elsie enjoying its warmth, and listening to the birr of her wheel.
ref: 1851, James Grant, The Scottish Cavalier: An Historical Romance, page 88:
text: When the British Tommies heard the "birr" of the five-inch Canadian shells they all asked whose they were.
ref: 1916, Colonel J.A. Currie, “XVII The Battle of Neuve Chapelle”, in The Red Watch, With the First Canadian Division in Flanders, Reprint edition, Project Gutenberg, published 2009:
text: The boom of her large, and the birr of her small, wheel were music to my young ear on awakening in the mornings.
ref: 1969, Alexander Durand Cameron, Living in Scotland, 1760-1820, page 18:
text: The birr of the spinning wheel , the clack and thump of the handloom are no longer to be heard, linen-spinning on the wheel – once a staple occupation for so many women – is now virtually a forgotten art.
ref: 1979, Alastair J. Durie, The Scottish Linen Industry in the Eighteenth Century, page 1:
text: A birr! a whirr! the salmon's out, Far on the rushing river; Onward he holds with sudden leap, Or plunges through the whirlpool deep, A desperate endeavour!
ref: 2012, Michael Balfour, Mysterious Scotland: Enigmas, Secrets and Legends:
glosses: A whirring noise
examples: text: Nae mair he will wi' rattlin' birr, Sing to his soul-inspirin' girr, The dormant Gothamites to stir, His powers to heed;
ref: 1865, Peter Mackenzie, Reminiscences of Glasgow and the West of Scotland, page 213:
text: […] can only be accounted for on the supposition that they recognise the resemblance it bears to their national pipe, and believe in nothing without a "sough", whether it be the "birr" of the drone, or the more dissonant but characteristic falsetto that governs the higher notes of the "chaunter".
ref: 1993, Scottish Studies - Volumes 31-33, page 59:
text: At all events, the vocabulary of Scots is not only the key to much of our literature, but an asset we should cherish and use to give smeddum and birr to our fushionless English.
ref: 1993, Paul H. Scott, “A Rich Vocabulary”, in Books in Scotland - Issues 45-56:
text: Gray possesses an unfortunate East of Scotland birr that suggests a 21-year-old student interviewing for his first job.
ref: 2011 April 24, Kevin McKenna, “Labour needs to challenge Alex Salmond – and quickly”, in The Guardian:
glosses: A strong trilling.