born

See also: Born, börn, and børn

English

Pronunciation

• (with the horse-hoarse merger)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɔːn/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /boɹn/, [bo̞ɹn]

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

  • Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)n
  • Homophones: borne, bourn, bourne, Bourne (all with the horse-hoarse merger), bawn (in non-rhotic accents), barn (with the card-cord merger)
• (without the horse–hoarse merger)
  • (rhotic) IPA^(key): /bɔːɹn/
  • (non-rhotic) IPA^(key): /bɔːn/

Etymology 1

From Middle English born, boren, borne, iborne, from Old English boren, ġeboren, from Proto-West Germanic *boran, *gaboran, from Proto-Germanic *buranaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *beraną (“to bear, carry”), equivalent to bear +‎ -en. Cognate with Saterland Frisian gebooren (“born”), West Frisian berne (“born”), Dutch geboren (“born”), German geboren (“born”), Swedish boren (“born”).

Verb

born

1. past participle of bear; given birth to.

   Although not born in the country, she qualifies for nationality through her grandparents.

2. (obsolete) past participle of bear in other senses.
   • 1784, Thomas Sheridan, Life of Dr. Swift, Section I:

     In some monasteries the severity of the clausure is hard to be born.

   • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 286:

     If I had not persuaded Harriet into liking the man, I could have born any thing.

Translations

be born — see be born

Adjective

born (not comparable)

1. Having from birth (or as if from birth) a certain quality or character; innate; inherited.

   In the United States, information describing the operation of nuclear weapons is born secret.

   • 1701 January (indicated as 1700), [Daniel Defoe], “Part II”, in The True-Born Englishman. A Satyr, [London: s.n.], →OCLC, page 61:

     I'll make it out, deny it he that can, / His Worship is a True-born Engliſhman, / In all the Latitude that Empty Word / By Modern Acceptation's understood.

   • 1942, Storm Jameson, Then we shall hear singing: a fantasy in C major:

     I ought really to have called him my sergeant. He's a born sergeant. That's as much as to say he's a born scoundrel.

   • 1965, Frank Herbert, Dune‎^[1] (Science Fiction), New York: Ace Books, →OCLC, page 118‎^[2]:

     “Your desert boots are fitted slip-fashion at the ankles. Who told you to do that?”
     "It . . . seemed the right way."
     "That it most certainly is."
     And Kynes rubbed his cheek, thinking of the legend: "He shall know your ways as though born to them."

Derived terms

• base-born
• be born last week
• be born yesterday
• born again
• born-again
• born-again virgin
• born and bred
• born at night but not last night
• born digital
• born-free
• born in a barn
• born in a mill
• born in the purple
• born in the vestry
• born killer
• born leader
• born loser
• born on the 4th of July
• born on the Fourth of July
• born sleeping
• born tired
• born to the purple
• born with a silver spoon in one's mouth
• born yesterday
• dead-born
• earthborn
• firstborn
• first-born
• foreign-born
• forest-born
• freeborn
• from me born
• full-born
• hell-born
• highborn
• high-born
• in all one's born days
• in one's born days
• I was born in ...
• lastborn
• last-born
• low-born
• middleborn
• naked as the day one was born
• native-born
• natural-born
• newborn
• new-born
• no one is born a master
• not know one is born
• one's father was born before one
• sky-born
• still-born
• stillborn
• there's a sucker born every minute
• there's one born every minute
• to the manner born
• to the manor born
• trueborn
• true-born
• twice-born
• twin-born
• unborn
• well-born
• were you born in a tent
• woman-born-woman
• womyn-born-womyn

 

Translations

given birth to

• Arabic: مَوْلُود (mawlūd)
• Aromanian: amintat
• Belarusian: наро́джаны (naródžany)
• Bulgarian: роде́н (bg) (rodén)
• Catalan: nascut (ca), nat (ca)
• Chichewa: -badwa
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 出生 (zh) (chūshēng)

• Czech: rozený (cs)
• Dalmatian: nascoit
• Danish: født
• Dutch: geboren (nl)
• Finnish: syntynyt (fi)
• French: né (fr)
• Friulian: nassût, našût
• Georgian: დაბადებული (dabadebuli), შობილი (šobili)
• German: geboren (de)
• Greek: γεννημένος (el) (genniménos)
• Hungarian: született (hu), -szülött (hu)
• Icelandic: fæddur
• Indonesian: lahir (id)
• Istriot: nato
• Italian: nato (it)
• Japanese: 生まれた (ja) (うまれた, umareta)
• Kazakh: туған (tuğan)
• Korean: 태어난 (taeeonan), 난 (nan)
• Ladin: nascù
• Macedonian: роден (roden)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: født (no)

  Nynorsk: fødd

• Occitan: nascut
• Old Norse: fǿddr, alinn, borinn, -kundr
• Persian: متولد (fa) (motavalled)
• Polish: urodzony (pl), narodzony
• Portuguese: nascido (pt), nato (pt), nado (pt)
• Romanian: născut (ro)
• Romansch: naschì, naschiu, naschieu, nat
• Russian: рождённый (roždjónnyj), урождённый (ru) (uroždjónnyj) (rare), роди́вшийся (ru) (rodívšijsja)
• Sardinian: naschidu, nasciu, nassiu
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ро̏ђен, ројен (dialectal)

  Roman: rȍđen (sh), rojen (dialectal)

• Sicilian: nasciutu (scn), natu (scn)
• Slovak: rodený
• Slovene: rojen (sl)
• Spanish: nacido (es), nato (es)
• Swedish: född (sv)
• Tajik: мутаваллид (mutavallid)
• Ukrainian: наро́джений (naródženyj), уро́джений (uródženyj), поро́джений (poródženyj), приро́джений (pryródženyj)
• Urdu: پیدا (paidā), پیدا شدہ (paidā shudah)
• Venetian: nato
• Yiddish: געבוירן (geboyrn)

See also

• borne
• né, née

Etymology 2

Dialectal variant of burn.

Noun

born (plural borns)

1. (Geordie) Alternative spelling of burn (a stream)

Verb

born (third-person singular simple present borns, present participle bornin, simple past and past participle bornt)

1. (Geordie) Alternative spelling of burn (with fire etc.)

Further reading

• Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, →ISBN
• Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin, [3]

Anagrams

• Brno, Norb

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

born f (plural bornen)

1. (dialectal) Obsolete form of bron.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• barn

Noun

born n

1. indefinite plural of barn