Forms: 1 biorʓ, 1–3 beorʓ, 1–2 beorh, 2 beoruh, 3 berhȝ, borew, 4 berȝ, bergh, beruȝ, beruh, berw, (borw, borȝ, borgh, burgh), 6 barow, (7 barrough), 6– barrow. See also BARGH, BURROW. [Com. Teut.: OE. beorʓ (:—berg) = OS., OHG. berg, MDu. berch, Ger., Du. berg, Goth. *bairgs:—OTeut. *bergo-z, all masc.; cf. ON. berg and bjarg (neut.) ‘rock.’ Cogn. with OSlav. brĕgŭ mountain, height, OIr. brigh mountain, Skr. b’rhant, Zend barezant high:—Aryan *bhergh height. In Eng. literature, the word went out of use before 1400, but was preserved, in special senses, in the north. dial. bargh, barf, and south-western barrow; the latter has since been taken back into archæological and general use from the ‘barrows’ of Salisbury Plain, etc.]
† 1. A mountain, mount, hill or hillock. (Applied, as the date becomes later, to lower eminences.)
c. 885. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. i. § 12. Þa beorʓas þe mon hæt Alpis.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Luke iii. 5. Ælc munt and beorh byþ ʓenyðerod.
c. 1150. in Wright, Voc., 92. Hul uel beoruh.
c. 1205. Lay., 12311. Vnder ane berhȝe. Ibid., 20854. Segges vnder beorȝen [1250 borewe] mid hornen, mid hunden.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2172. A balȝ berȝ, bi a bonke.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. VIII. 227. Thenne shalt þou blenche at a bergh [v.r. berwe, borw, borȝ, borgh], ber-no-fals-wytnesse.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 36. Sterrewurte groweth vpon small hillockes, barrowes, or knappes.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, I. 212. Planted on a little Barrough within Randome-shot of the Enemy.
2. Still in local use: a. in the southwest, forming part of the name of hills, as Cadon Barrow in Cornwall, Trentishoe Barrow in North Devon, Bull Barrow in Dorset; b. in the north, usually a long low hill, as Barrow near Derwentwater, Whitbarrow in North Lancashire: see BARGH.
3. A mound of earth or stones erected in early times over a grave; a grave-mound, a tumulus.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Joshua vii. 26 (Bosw.). Worhton mid stánum ánne steápne beorh him ofer.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 124. Ðeos wyrt … bið cenned abutan byrʓenne, & on beorʓum.
1576. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 392. These hillocks, in the West Countrie (where is no small store of the like) are called Barowes … which signifieth Sepulchres.
1656. J. Chaloner, in D. King, Vale Royall, IV. 10. Those round hills, which in the Plains of Wiltshire are … by the Inhabitants termed Barrowes, like as in the Midland parts of England they call them Lowes, commonly and truly held to be the Sepulchres of the Danes.
1772. Pennant, Tours Scot. (1774), 185. A plain, on which are five earthen tumuli, or barrows.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, II. xiv. 244. Another barrow was consecrated to the Platæans and the slaves.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. 65. Sir Richard Colt Hoare … adopted a subdivision, which embraces fourteen different kinds of barrows, classified according to their shape.
1860. Tennyson, Tithonus, 71. Grassy barrows of the happier dead.
1877. Greenwell & Rolleston (title), British Barrows; a record of the examination of sepulchral mounds.
4. dial. A mound or heap.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., iii. 18. John lay on the ground by a barrow of heather.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Barrow (Cornw.), a heap of attle or rubbish.
