Bern
UK /bɜː(ɹ)n/ · US /bɝn/ proper noun
Forms Berns Berne
- proper noun A federal city of Switzerland; the capital city of Bern canton.
- proper noun A canton of Switzerland.
- proper noun A surname
- proper noun A diminutive of the male given name Bernard, variant of Bernie.
- proper noun A diminutive of the female given names Bernadette and Bernice, variant of Bernie.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Alemannic German Bärn, of uncertain further origin.
A popular folk etymology says it was named by its founder, Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen, after the first animal he saw in the area, a Bär(in) (“bear”) (compare Berlin, subject to a similar folk etymology).
The name is now thought to be connected to a Celtic word, Proto-Celtic *berna (“cleft”) (from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to carve out, cut”)) and *branos (“raven”) (compare the name ΒΡΕΝΟΔΩΡ (BRENODŌR), on the Bern zinc tablet, which has also been connected with the Gaulish name Brennus). More at Bern.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “Bern”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details