barm
BosomBosom
Meaning
4 senses(dialectal, obsolete)Bosom
(dialectal, obsolete)Lap
(countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable)Foam rising upon beer or other malt liquors when fermenting, used as leaven in brewing and making bread; yeast.
a commercial leavening agent containing yeast cells; used to raise the dough in making bread and for fermenting beer or whiskey
(countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable)A small, round, flat individual loaf or roll of bread.
Translations
1 languagesOrigin
From Middle English barm, barme, berm, bearm, from Old English bearm (“lap; bosom”), fromFrom Middle English barm, barme, berm, bearm, from Old English bearm (“lap; bosom”), from Proto-West Germanic *barm, from Proto-Germanic *barmaz (“lap; bosom”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear”). Cognate with German Barm (“lap; bosom”).
From Middle English berme, berm, from Old English beorma, from Proto-West Germanic *bermō (“yeast; barm”); related to the dialectal Low German Bärm (“yeast”), from Middle Low German barm, berm. The cake sense is possibly a shortened form of barmcake, which would be made with yeast as described in that sense, or possibly it is from the Irish bairín breac, a type of bread.
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Forms
plural: barmsSynonyms
1 synonyms- a commercial leavening agent containing yeast cells; used to raise the dough in making bread and for fermenting beer or whiskey:yeast