Forms: 3 barain, -aigne, 4 barein, -en, 4–5 bareine, -eyn(e, 5 -ane, 4–6 ayn(e, barreyne, -ayne, (5 berhayn), 6 baraine, (barune, baryn), barreine, -ayn, (Sc. barrane, -and, -ant), 6–7 barraine, 6– barren. Compared barrener, -est. [a. OF. *barain, brahain, brehaing, in fem. baraine, baraigne, barhaine, barahaine, braaigne, brahaigne, brehaigne, of uncertain origin and original form: assuming this to be barain, Diez suggests derivation from bar ‘man, male’ (L. type *bār-āneus), as if ‘male-like, not producing offspring, sterile,’ which suits the sense well; but there seems to be good reason for taking brahain as the original type, whence bréhain, and barhain, barain; the latter was the Anglo-Norman form. (The Breton bréchagn is certainly from Fr.: Thurneysen.)]
A. adj. I. Literal senses. Oppos. to fertile.
1. Of a woman: Bearing no children; without issue, childless.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 133. Þe wimman was barrage [? barraigne], swo þat heo ne mihte for unkinde hauen no child.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 158. Al were he, þuruh miracle, of barain iboren.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 16655. Þe baraigne blisced sal man call. Ibid. (c. 1340) (Fairf.), 2600. Sare … sayde til abraham … I am baren [Cotton geld]. Ibid. (Trin.), 12257. Þe bareyn [Cotton vnfruitand] shal hir fruyt fynde.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, F. vij b. Fenenna scorned … Anna and called her berhayn.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot., Prol. The barrant wyfe Appeiris yung.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., I. i. 72. In shady Cloister mew’d, To liue a barren sister all your life.
1751. Jortin, Serm. (1771), I. ii. 22. His wife Sarah being barren.
2. Of animals: Not bearing, not pregnant at the usual season.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1320. To hunt … at hyndez barayne.
c. 1400. Ywaine & Gaw., 2027. Sone he met a barayn da.
1653. Walton, Angler, 84. So there be some barren Trouts, that are good in Winter.
1725. Pope, Odyss., X. 622. A barren cow, the stateliest of the isle.
1882. Somerset Co. Gaz., 18 March (Advt.), Cow and calf, barreners, barren heifers.
b. Of male animals: Sterile, castrated.
1617. Minsheu, Ductor, 872. A boare hogge made a barren hogge … a libd or gelded hogge, porcus castratus.
3. Of trees or plants: Without fruit or seed. (Sometimes specifically, as in Barren Strawberry, a strawberry-like plant bearing only a dry seed.)
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1119. Knotty knarry bareyn trees olde.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Aveneron, barren oates.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, cxxviii. § 3. 397. Barren Welde hath a thicke wooddie roote.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. I. xi. 256. Rise in the real price of barren timber, in consequence of the improvement of land.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., I. 9. Flowers … which have stamens only, are said to be barren.
1878. B. Taylor, Deukalion, I. ii. 23. The barren bough hung apples to the sun.
4. Of land: Producing little or no vegetation; not fertile, sterile, unproductive, bare. So of mines, etc.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 106. Ne no lond tylye But al bareyne be.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 169. In bareine lande to sette or foster vynes.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. Prol. 41. Bewtie wes lost, and barrand schew the landis.
1551. Turner, Herbal (1568), F ij a. Gotes bearde in barune places hath but a short stalke.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. 349. Land … exceeding stony and barraine.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. I. xi. 249. The most fertile mine then known may be more barren than any that was wrought before the discovery of America.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., II. ii. § 5. One of the barrennest soils in the world.
5. Void of vital germs.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc., II. xiii. 333. An infusion found to be barren by six months’ exposure to moteless air.
II. Figurative senses.
6. Bare of intellectual wealth, destitute of attraction or interest, poor, meager, jejune, arid, dry.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. I. 11. I … dradde, after so noble spekers … to putte forþ my bareyn speche.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. v. Thy wyt was to barrayne.
1549. Olde, Erasm. Par. Eph., Prol. E ij. The kynges maiesties playne Englyshe subiectes vnderstande none other but theyr owne natiue barayne tongue.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, Pref. 5. Discourses … not so barraine, but you may reape some good fruit from them.
1782. V. Knox, Ess. (1819), I. xlvii. 260. The barrenest periods of English literature.
1846. Grote, Greece, I. iv. (1862), I. 79. A list of barren names fills up the interval.
7. Unproductive of results; fruitless, unprofitable.
1549. Coverdale, Erasm. Par. 1 Cor. xv. 10. I suffered not hys grace in me to be either idle or baraine.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl. (1675), Pref. 12. Who may chance to have either Barrenner Fancy’s, or more unpractis’d Pens, than even I had.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., 297. Barren Praise … that Gaudy Flow’r, Fair only to the sight.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Barren money is used, in the civil law, for that which is not put out to interest.
1779. J. Moore, View Soc. Fr. (1789), I. viii. 55. They could shed a few barren tears at a tragedy.
1877. Mozley, Univ. Serm., i. 12. A barren and unrepaid attachment, a wasted affection.
8. Of persons: Mentally unproductive; unresponsive, dull, yielding no mental fruit.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 13. The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort. Ibid. (1602), Ham., III. ii. 46. Will themselues laugh, to set on some quantitie of barren Spectators to laugh too.
1779. Johnson, L. P., Phillips, Wks. II. 291. He was in company silent and barren.
1866. Carlyle, Remin. (1881), I. 324. The stupidest and barrenest of living mortals.
9. Const. in all prec. senses with of.
c. 1375. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. 1869, II. 278. Þou … þat art barayne of goostly children.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, IV. xx. Of ioye am I barayne.
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., 198. These countreys be baryn of wine and corne.
1633. Bp. Hall, Hard Texts, 374. Have I been barren of my favours to you?
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 196, ¶ 5. Hearts barren of Kindness.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. ii. 154. The league with France … had been barren of results.
III. Comb. in parasynthetic deriv., as barren-brained, -spirited, -witted, -wombed; and complemental, as barren-beaten.
1597. Drayton, Mortimer., 117. Renewe this wearie barren-wombed earth.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., IV. i. 36. A barren spirited Fellow.
1798. Southey, Lett. (1856), I. 58. A barren-brained blockhead.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 161. He left the barren-beaten thoroughfare.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., ix. 187. What a barren-witted pate is mine!
B. sb. [the adj. used absol.]
† 1. A barren woman or animal. Obs.
[Cf. 1230 and 1340 in A 1.]
c. 1420. Anturs Arth., iv. Vndur boes thay byde … To beker at the barrens.
† 2. Specific term for a drove of mules. Obs.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, F vj a. A Baren of Mulis.
3. A tract of barren land; spec. applied in N. America to: a. elevated plains on which grow small trees and shrubs, but no timber, classed as oak-barrens, pine-barrens, etc., according to the trees growing on them; b. in Kentucky, to certain really fertile tracts in the carboniferous limestone formation; c. in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (see quot. 1879).
1784. T. Jefferson, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), IV. 63. A mountainous barren which can never be inhabited.
1850. Lyell, 2nd Visit U.S., II. 12. I had sometimes to put up with rough quarters in the pine-barrens.
1859. Kingsley, Life, II. 100 (D.). To have the sewage conveyed … to fertilize the barrens of Surrey and Berkshire.
1877. J. Allen, Amer. Bison, 460. The so-called Barrens of Kentucky, the southward extension of the Wabash prairies.
1879. Ld. Dunraven, in 19th Cent., July, 54. A barren … means in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick an open marshy space in the forest, sometimes so soft as to be almost impassable, at other times composed of good solid hard peat.
