Bairnish

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having the manners of a child; childish; silly. Northern-England, Scotland, UK, dialectal

Etymology

From Middle English *bernis, *barnisch, from Old English *bearnisċ and Old Norse bernskr (“childish”), from Proto-Germanic *barniskaz (“childish”), equivalent to bairn + -ish. Cognate with Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐍂𐌽𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍃 (barnisks, “childish”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.