Talk:Barley

Agree it could use better placement and sourcing

Hey there @Chiswick Chap:, regarding the deletion of this, I would like to know if it is worth troubling myself to craft a small paragraph on the medicinal use of barley, which is mentioned not just by Avicenna but also referencing his work in contemporary integrative and traditional medicine studies, like this one. Tiamut (talk) 11:11, 9 January 2026 (UTC)

I think that might be the wrong direction. It doesn't seem a good fit in the historical 'Spread'. It wouldn't be a good fit in 'Culture and folklore' either. I guess we might be able to work in a brief mention in 'Other uses', let me see. Chiswick Chap (talk) 11:28, 9 January 2026 (UTC)

Etymology – bære and beer

What is about an etymological connection with the word beer, either that bære was the grain to make beer, or that beer was the drink brewed of grain (Latin far also means "grain" at all, and farina is a derived term, "something made of grain").

Kluge's Etymological Dictionary of the German Language considers as one possible origin of the word Bier a Germanic word for barley, but mentions it with w instead of r, "bewwa", including Old Norse bygg (Kluge, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, Walter de Gruyter Gmbh (limited), 24th edition, 2002, ISBN 3-11-017473-1 & -3, p.121)

Best regards, --Ulamm (talk) 17:37, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

I've always wondered if it might be so, it's very tempting. But we must go with reliable sources and solid evidence, not possible bits of etymological speculation. Chiswick Chap (talk) 18:33, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

If Kluge (or some of his successors) had not unfortunately written "bewwa" instead of "bera" or so, we could cite that book. The connotation of LA far and farina is from a Langenscheidt dictionary of Latin.

If there is not a documented Latin or Greek word (or name) as a sure origin of an English, German or other modern word (or name), etymology is speculative, anyway. But as the word beer is used also in French (la bière) and Italian (birra), there may be some more useful etymological literature, internationally.--Ulamm (talk) 21:26, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

The bias of baere/barr and bygg is solved by a dictionary of Old Norse:

https://cleasby-vigfusson-dictionary.vercel.app/word/barr-2

barr

II. = barley, [Scot. and North. E. bear, A. S. bere, is four-rowed barley, a coarse kind; bigg in North. E. and Scot. is six-rowed barley, also a coarse kind: cp. ‘the Bigg-market,’ a street in Newcastle-upon-Tyne: barlog, sweet wort, made of barley, Ivar Aasen]; bygg heitir með mönnum, en barr með goðum, men call it ‘bygg,’ but gods ‘bear,’ which shews (= shows) that barr sounded foreign, and that bygg was the common word, Alvm. 33; Edda (Gl.) 231 has b. under sáðsheiti, v. Lex. Poët. Common phrases in Icel., as bera ekki sitt barr, of one who will never again bear leaves or flourish, metaph. from a withered tree: so Persarum vigui rege bcatior is rendered, lifs míns blómgaðra bar, en buðlungs Persa var, Snot 129. barlegr, adj. vigorous, well-looking.

Possible runic inscription in Younger Futhark:ᛒᛅᚱᚱ

The phrase "Among men it is called bygg but with God it is barr" hints to monastic context of the invention of the beer.

The etymology of the word beer is (the "Kluge" and others) explained as derived from Latin bibere ("to drink"; modern Italian: bere). That is parallel to the slavic term pivo, "beer", literally "the drink", from pit = "to drink".

This way, the connection is suggested, but in the opposite direction.

It has to be regarded that, different from biological individuals and species, words need have an unambiguous genealogy. By mechanisms of "popular etymology", a term initiated on one background can be supported by other connotations.

--Ulamm (talk) 10:43, 4 February 2026 (UTC)