Kilo Lingo

#880 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

beard

Examples

.

His beard was long and white.

cotidie radebat.

He shaved his beard every day.

.

The man was notable for his beard.

.

He held his beard in his hand for a long while.

.

The old men had long beards.

Barba, barbae, f., first declension, and the same Indo-European word as English beard and German Bart, so it is one of the rare Latin nouns an English speaker can simply recognise.

Romans of the late Republic and early Empire shaved. A beard on a citizen therefore meant something specific: mourning, or philosophy, or a young man who had not yet had his first shave, which was a family occasion with the clippings dedicated to a god. Hadrian made beards respectable again and every emperor after him wears one on the coins. Do not connect it to barbarus, which is Greek and imitates the sound of unintelligible speech; the resemblance is an accident that has been fooling people since antiquity.

Where this fits

Add to review queue

Track this word in your spaced-repetition queue and be tested on it at the right interval.

Go to my review queue

Latin · Free printables

barba: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Latin word "barba" (beard): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

Free for members

The printable worksheets, infographics and PDFs are free with an account. Start a free week and download as many as you like.

Start your free week

This word is part of lesson 18.