bairnly
English edit
Etymology edit
Adjective edit
bairnly (comparative more bairnly, superlative most bairnly)
- (Scotland, rare) Bairnlike; childish.
- 1813, Allan Cunningham, “The Rosie Cheek”, in Songs: Chiefly in the Rural Language of Scotland, verse 3, page 50:
- Woman thour't but a bairnlie playke, / Wi' nought but beauty's blossom; / But, thour't a flow'r of heavenly pow'r, / Wi' pity in thy bosom:
- 1822, John Galt, chapter 5, in Sir Andrew Wylie, of That Ilk, volume 1, page 36:
- Andrew examined the wounded part, and declared it was just a flea bite. "It's a wee red," said he, "and before half an hour's bye ye'll ne'er fin't. Man, Charlie, it's bairnly to make sic a wark for a bit tig on the haffet […] "
- 1893, Robert Louis Stevenson, David Balfour, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, published 1905, page 301:
- "So she will be, indeed!" says Catriona. "But I will never forgive her for all that. I will never, never forgive her, and let me hear tell of her no more."
"Well," said I, "this beats all that ever came to my knowledge; and I wonder that you can indulge yourself in such bairnly whims. Here is a young lady that was the best friend in the world to the both of us, that learned us how to dress ourselves, and in a great manner how to behave, as anyone can see that knew us both before and after."
- 1894, Ian Maclaren, “A Wise Woman”, in Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush:
- There wes nae thocht worth mentionin', and onything he hed wes eked oot by repeetition. Tae sae naethin' o' bairnly stories.
- 1896, P[eter] Hay Hunter, James Inwick: Ploughman and Elder, pages 161–162:
- I canna tell ye hoo it was, but that was the kind o' feelin that cam ower we—that it wad be a bairnly-like thing, an' a cooardly-like thing forby, no' to gae in wi' the lave, an' record my vote eithor on the tae side or the tither. Ye can respec' a man wha taks the wrang side, sae lang as he believes it richt; but hoo can ye respec' a man wha refüses to tak ony side […]
Synonyms edit
- infantile, puerile; see also Thesaurus:childish