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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

English

bar

/bɑː/
A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length.

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    • derived
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    • meaning component
    • sound component
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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    From Middle English barre, from Old French barre (“beam, bar, gate, barrier”), from Vulgar Latin *barra, of uncertain origin. Doublet of barre.

    Etymology 2

    From Middle English barren, from Old French barrer, from Medieval Latin barrare (“to bar”), from the noun. Cognate to Occitan barrar, Spanish barrar, Portuguese barrar.

    Preposition properly imperative of the verb. Compare barring.

    Etymology 3

    Borrowed from Ancient Greek βάρος (báros, “weight”), coined circa 1900.

    Etymology 4

    From foobar, a phonetic respelling of FUBAR.

    Etymology 5

    Variant of bear.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishbarre
      • borrowedOld Frenchbarre “bar, bolt”
        • inheritedVulgar Latin*barra “bar, barrier”
          • derivedVulgar Latin*barrum “clay, mud”
    • inheritedMiddle Englishbarren
      • derivedOld Frenchbarrer
        • derivedMedieval Latinbarrare “to bar”
    • rootProto-Indo-European*gʷreh₂- “heavy”
    • borrowedAncient Greekβάρος “weight”
      • derivedAncient Greekβαρύς “heavy”
        • inheritedProto-Hellenic*gʷarus
    • derivedEnglishfoobar “A serious mistake.”
      • derivedEnglishfoo “A metasyntactic variable used to represent an unspecified entity. If part of a series of such entit…”
        • derivedChinese福 “blessing; happiness; prosperity; good fortune”

    Related: English barre (doublet), Occitan barrar, Spanish barrar, Portuguese barrar

    Words built on it: 吧

    Meanings

    noun
    1. A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length.
    2. A solid metal object with uniform (round, square, hexagonal, octagonal or rectangular) cross-section; in the US its smallest dimension is ¹⁄₄ inch or greater, a piece of thinner material being called a strip.
    3. A cuboid piece of any solid commodity.
    4. A broad shaft, band, or stripe.
    5. A long, narrow drawn or printed rectangle, cuboid or cylinder, especially as used in a bar code or a bar chart.
    6. Any of various lines used as punctuation or diacritics, such as the pipe ⟨|⟩, fraction bar (as in 12), and strikethrough (as in Ⱥ), formerly (obsolete) including oblique marks such as the slash.
    verb
    1. To obstruct the passage of (someone or something).
    2. To prohibit.
    3. To lock or bolt with a bar.
    4. To imprint or paint with bars, to stripe.
    prep
    1. Except, other than, besides.
    adv
    1. Denotes the minimum odds offered on other horses not mentioned by name.

    Sources

    • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
    • Wiktionary: bar