An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Bart

by Friedrich Kluge

Bart, m., ‘beard, comb, barb,’ from the equiv. MidHG. bart, OHG. bart, m.; comp. Du. baard, AS. and E. beard. For this Teut. word, the existence of which is proved by the ethnical term Langobarden to be extremely remote, skegg was used in Scand. The pre-Teut. form of Goth. *barda, f., was, in accordance with the permutation of consonants, bhardhâ — which is also presumed by OSlov. brada (with the usual loss of aspiration and metathesis of the r), and Lat. barba (with b for dh when next to r, comp. rot, Wort; the initial b is from bh, as in Backe; in other cases initial bh is Lat. f). Comp. also Lith. barzdà, ‘beard’ (for *bardà).