Burr

How to spell burr

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce burr

What does burr mean?

1. nounA rough, raised edge or ridge of material left on metal or wood after it has been cut, drilled, or filed.
2. nounThe prickly, clinging seed case of certain plants, which hooks onto fur and clothing.
3. nounA rough or rolling pronunciation of the letter 'r', characteristic of certain regional accents.
4. nounA low, continuous whirring or vibrating sound.

Burr in a sentence

• He ran a file along the cut pipe to remove the sharp burr.

• A burr from the burdock stuck fast to the dog's coat after the walk.

• The farmer spoke with a soft west-country burr that warmed every word.

• The steady burr of the old fan filled the quiet office.

• A tiny burr on the drilled hole snagged the wire as it passed through.

• She picked a stubborn burr off her woollen sock at the edge of the field.

Where does burr come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Burr is an old word of northern European stock, and its earliest English form was 'bur' or 'borre', a name for the prickly, clinging seed head of plants such as the burdock. The likeliest source is Scandinavian: compare Old Norse and the related forms preserved in modern Danish 'borre' and Swedish 'kardborre', all describing those rough, hooking seed cases. From the idea of a rough, catching surface the sense widened: by the 1600s 'burr' could mean the rough ridge of metal thrown up by a cutting tool, and later the small whirring or rolling sound made by such roughness or by a strongly trilled 'r'. English settled on the doubled-'r' spelling 'burr' for these extended senses while often keeping plain 'bur' for the plant, which is exactly why the spelling feels unsettled today. The origin is reasonably but not certainly traced, so a Scandinavian root is the best supported guess rather than a proven fact.

How the word is built

• burr (single root; a doublet of 'bur', the prickly seed case, with the doubled 'r' marking the variant used for rough metal edges and rolling sounds)