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

NounEdit

berth (plural berths)

  1. A fixed bunk for sleeping (in caravans, trains, etc).
  2. Room for maneuvering or safety. (Often used in the phrase a wide berth.)
  3. A space for a ship to moor or a vehicle to park.
  4. (nautical) A room in which a number of the officers or ship's company mess and reside.
  5. A job or position, especially on a ship.
  6. (sports) Position or seed in a tournament bracket.
  7. (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

VerbEdit

berth (third-person singular simple present berths, present participle berthing, simple past and past participle berthed)

  1. (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.
  2. (transitive) to assign a berth (bunk or position) to

TranslationsEdit

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)

  1. (obsolete) fair, fine, beautiful

Derived termsEdit

MutationEdit

Welsh mutation
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

  1. 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.
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