berth
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
Origin obscure. Possibly from Middle English *berth (“bearing, carriage”), equivalent to bear + -th. This would make it a doublet of birth.
Alternatively, from an alteration of Middle English beard, bærde (“bearing, conduct”), itself of obscure formation. Compare Old English ġebǣru (“bearing, conduct, behaviour”).
PronunciationEdit
- (UK) IPA(key): /bɜːθ/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (US) enPR: bûrth, IPA(key): /bɝθ/
- Homophone: birth
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)θ
NounEdit
berth (plural berths)
- A fixed bunk for sleeping (in caravans, trains, etc).
- Room for maneuvering or safety. (Often used in the phrase a wide berth.)
- A space for a ship to moor or a vehicle to park.
- (nautical) A room in which a number of the officers or ship's company mess and reside.
- A job or position, especially on a ship.
- (sports) Position or seed in a tournament bracket.
- (sports) position on the field of play
- 2012 December 29, Paul Doyle, “Arsenal's Theo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle”, in The Guardian[1]:
- Olivier Giroud then entered the fray and Walcott reverted to his more familiar berth on the right wing, quickly creating his side's fifth goal by crossing for Giroud to send a plunging header into the net from close range.
TranslationsEdit
bunk
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maneuvering room
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space to moor
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position on a ship
sports: position in the field
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VerbEdit
berth (third-person singular simple present berths, present participle berthing, simple past and past participle berthed)
- (transitive) to bring (a ship or vehicle) into its berth
- 1961 August, “New traffic flows in South Wales”, in Trains Illustrated, page 494:
- Further west, in Pembrokeshire, the Esso Petroleum Co. refinery at Milford Haven, opened last November, is designed to berth the world's largest tankers and to process, initially, 4,500,000 tons of crude oil a year.
- (transitive) to assign a berth (bunk or position) to
TranslationsEdit
to bring a ship into berth
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WelshEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Proto-Brythonic *berθ, from Proto-Celtic *berxtos.
AdjectiveEdit
berth (feminine singular berth, plural berthion, equative berthed, comparative berthach, superlative berthaf)
Derived termsEdit
MutationEdit
Welsh mutation | |||
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radical | soft | nasal | aspirate |
berth | ferth | merth | unchanged |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
Etymology 2Edit
NounEdit
berth
- Soft mutation of perth (“hedge”).
MutationEdit
Welsh mutation | |||
---|---|---|---|
radical | soft | nasal | aspirate |
perth | berth | mherth | pherth |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |