bier
UK /bɪə/ · US /bɪɚ/ noun
Forms biers
- noun A litter to transport the corpse of a dead person.
- noun A platform or stand where a body or coffin is placed.
- noun A count of forty threads in the warp or chain of woollen cloth.
Etymology
From Middle English beer, beere, bere, from Old English bēr, (West Saxon) bǣr (“stretcher, bier”), from Proto-West Germanic *bāru, from Proto-Germanic *bērō, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry, bear”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Beere (“stretcher, bier”), Dutch baar (“bier”), German Bahre (“bier, stretcher”). More at bear.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A handbarrow or portable frame on which a corpse is placed or borne to the grave.
- noun A count of forty threads in the warp or chain of woolen cloth.
Etymology [OE. bæe, beere, AS. b, b; akin to D. baar, OHG. bara, G. bahre, Icel barar, Dbaare, L. feretrum, Gr. , from the same bear to produce. See 1st Bear, and cf. Barrow.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bier”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details