barrier | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

45 entries found.

"anything meant to obstruct entrance," early 14c., barere, from Anglo-French barrere, Old French barriere "obstacle, gatekeeper," from barre "bar" (see bar (n.1)). First record of barrier reef is from 1805.

roadblock (n.)

"barrier or obstruction on a road," usually for military or police purposes, 1940, from road (n.) + block (n.2).

bar (n.2)

"tavern," 1590s, so called in reference to the bars of the barrier or counter over which drinks or food were served to customers (see bar (n.1)).

turnpike (n.)

early 15c., "spiked road barrier used for defense," from turn + pike (n.2) "shaft." Sense transferred to "horizontal cross of timber, turning on a vertical pin" (1540s), which were used to bar horses from foot roads. This led to the sense of "barrier to stop passage until a toll is paid" (1670s). Meaning "road with a toll gate" is from 1748, shortening of turnpike road (1745).

barrage (n.)

1859, "action of barring; man-made barrier in a stream" (for irrigation, etc.), from French barrer "to stop," from barre "bar," from Old French barre (see bar (n.1)). Artillery sense is 1916, from World War I French phrase tir de barrage "barrier fire" intended to isolate the objective. As a verb by 1917. Related: Barraged; barraging.

closure (n.)

late 14c., "a barrier, a fence," from Old French closure "enclosure; that which encloses, fastening, hedge, wall, fence," also closture "barrier, division; enclosure, hedge, fence, wall" (12c., Modern French clôture), from Late Latin clausura "lock, fortress, a closing" (source of Italian chiusura), from past participle stem of Latin claudere "to close" (see close (v.)).

Sense of "act of closing, a bringing to a close" is from early 15c. In legislation, especially "closing or stopping of debate" (compare cloture). Sense of "tendency to create ordered and satisfying wholes" is 1924, from Gestalt psychology.

stockade (n.)

1610s, "a barrier of stakes," a nativization of Spanish estacada, from estaca "stake," from a Germanic source cognate with Old English staca, see stake (n.1)). Meaning "military prison" first recorded 1865. As a verb from 1755.

breakthrough (n.)

also break-through, 1918, in a military sense, from the verbal phrase; see break (v.) + through (adv.). The verbal phrase is attested from c. 1400 in the sense "overcome or penetrate a barrier." Meaning "abrupt solution or progress" is from 1930s, on the notion of a successful attack.

outsider (n.)

1800, "one who is on the outside" of a boundary, barrier, etc., from outside; figurative sense of "a person isolated from conventional society" is first recorded 1907. The sense of "a race horse not included among the favorites" is from 1836; hence outside chance (1909).

traverse (n.)

"act of passing through a gate, crossing a bridge, etc.," mid-14c., from Old French travers, from traverser (see traverse (v.)). Meaning "a passage by which one may traverse" is recorded from 1670s. Military fortification sense of "barrier, barricade" is recorded from 1590s.

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