Barb

How to spell barb

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce barb

What does barb mean?

1. nounA sharp point projecting backward from a main point, as on a fishhook, arrow, or wire.
2. nounA sharply critical or wounding comment.

Barb in a sentence

• Each barb on the wire fence tore at his jacket as he climbed over.

• Her parting barb about his presentation stayed with him all afternoon.

• The barb on the fishhook made it difficult to remove from the trout's mouth.

• He disguised the insult as a joke, but the barb was unmistakable.

Where does barb come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin barba, which simply meant 'beard'. It travelled into English through the Old French barbe during the 1300s, originally describing the beard-like tuft or bristle on certain objects. The sense narrowed to the backward-pointing spike on an arrow, fishhook, or spear, because such a point splays out from the shaft rather like stiff hairs or a beard. From that physical meaning came the figurative use for a sharp, wounding remark that catches and sticks just as a barb does in flesh. The same barba root sits inside the everyday words 'barber' (one who trims beards) and 'barbel' (a fish named for its beard-like feelers), and the spelling stays mercifully short and phonetic.

How the word is built

• barb (from Latin barba: beard, applied to a beard-like backward point)