Obs. Forms: 3–5 baret, 4 -ete, 4–5 -ette, -ett, -at, 5 -ate, -eyt, barret, -ette, 5–6 barrat. [a. OF. barat (nom. baras) masc. (= It. baratto, OSp. barato, Pr. barat), also OF. barate fem. (= OSp., Cat., Pr. barata) ‘deceit, fraud, confusion, trouble, embarrassment.’ Of doubtful origin: the final -at of OF., and It. -atto, indicate an original a in position, as -att-, -apt- (Godef. has a 14th-c. spelling barapt). The original sense in Romanic seems to have been ‘traffic, commerce, dealing’ (P. Meyer). Diez, Scheler, and E. Müller favor a possible derivation from Gr. πράττειν ‘to practise, do business, deal,’ as to which see their works. Chevallet and Stokes compare OIr. mrath, later brath, OBreton brat, later brad, Welsh brad ‘betrayal, treachery,’ as the possible source of the Fr. and thence of the other Romanic forms. Sense 3 cannot be separated from ON. barátta ‘fight, contest, strife, (in deriv.) trouble,’ which appears to have concurrently or independently influenced the Eng. word.]
1. Deception, fraud, fraudulent dealing.
[1292. Britton, IV. iii. § 3. Par extorsioun … par barat et par contek.]
1340. Ayenb., 39. Barat, ualshedes and alle gyles.
c. 1400. Maundev., xxvii. 272. Thei sette not be no Barettes … Cawteles, Disceytes.
1485. Caxton, Chas. Gt., 231. Doon in good entent and equyte and without barat.
1503. Sheph. Kal., xlii. A Person with a short neck, is full of fraude, [of] barate, of deception.
2. Trouble, distress, sorrow, grief, pain.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 414. ‘Marthe, Marthe,’ cweð he, ‘þu ert ine muchele baret.’
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 124. Baret sal he thol and wa.
c. 1400. Epiph. (Turnb., 1843), 1727. Then saw he hym in gret bareyt And in a fyr to the navylle y-seytt.
1552. Lyndesay, Dreme, 851. Quho sall beir of our barrat the blame?
3. Contention, strife, quarrel, fighting.
c. 1300. Beket, 703. The King him makede wroth ynouȝ: that so ofte in baret was.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 99. Whan þis barette was ent.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 21. Bolde bredden þer-inne, baret þat lofden.
1496. Dives & Paup. (W. de W.), IX. xiv. 366. Whiche in fyght & barett lese theyr eyen, theyr feet, theyr hondes.
