bury
/ˈbɛɹi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.89 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Grandpa’s still in excellent health. He’ll bury us all!"
- "bury a bone; bury the embers"
- "Later that morning, they wrapped Ian in a wildebeest skin and buried him near a shepherd tree."
- "She buried her face in the pillow, and I buried mine in my hands."
- "The splinter has buried itself under the nail."
- "The information I need is buried behind needless details."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰergʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *burgijaną Proto-West Germanic *burgijan Old English byrġan Middle English birien English bury Middle English birien, berien, from Old English byrġan, from Proto-West Germanic *burgijan, from Proto-Germanic *burgijaną (“to keep safe”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰergʰ- (“to defend, protect”). Cognate with Icelandic byrgja (“to cover, shut; to hold in”); West Frisian bergje (“to keep”), German bergen (“to save/rescue something”), Danish bjerge (“to save/rescue something or somebody”); also Eastern Lithuanian bir̃ginti (“to save, spare”), Russian бере́чь (beréčʹ, “to spare”), Ossetian ӕмбӕрзын (æmbærzyn, “to cover”). The spelling with ⟨u⟩ represents the pronunciation of the West Midland and Southern dialects, while the Modern English pronunciation with /ɛ/ is from the Kentish dialects. Compare typologically Russian хорони́ть (xoronítʹ) (akin to храни́ть (xranítʹ)), Polish chować.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *bʰergʰ-, birien, byrġan, *burgijan, *burgijaną, *bʰerǵʰ-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈbɛɹi/
- British English: /ˈbɛɹi/