barm

Meanings

Noun

• Bosom, lap.
• Foam rising upon beer, or other malt liquors, when fermenting, and used as leaven in making bread and in brewing; yeast.
• A small, flat, round individual loaf or roll of bread.

Verb

• To spurge; foam

Origin

• From Middle English barm, barme, berm, bearm, from Old English bearm, from Proto-Germanic *barmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-. Cognate with German Barm.
• From Middle English berme, berm, from Old English beorma, from Proto-West Germanic *bermō; related to the dialectal Low German Bärm, from Middle Low German barm, berm. The cake sense is possibly a shortened form of barmcake, which would be made with yeast as described in that sense, or possibly it is from the Irish bairín breac, a type of bread.
• From Middle English bermen, from the noun (see above).