hardy cereal plant, Old English bærlic, apparently originally an adjective, "of barley," from bere "barley" (from Proto-Germanic *bariz, *baraz) + -lic "body, like." First element is related to Old Norse barr "barley," and cognate with Latin far (genitive farris) "coarse grain, meal" (see farina).

"covered building for the storage of farm produce," Old English bereærn "barn," literally "barley house," from bere "barley" (see barley) + aern "house; place for storing," metathesized from *rann, *rasn (source also of Old Norse rann "large house," Gothic razn "house," Old English rest "resting place").

For the formation and the second element, compare saltern "a salt-works," from Old English sealtærn "saltworks;" Old English horsern "stable." Latin cellarium was glossed by Old English hordern, and dormitorium was slæpern.

In Anglo-Saxon England, barley was a primary grain crop.

Barley was not always the only crop grown as the data recovered at Bishopstone might suggest but it is always the most commonly represented, followed by wheat and then rye and oats. [C.J. Arnold, "An Archaeology of the Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms," 1988, p.36]

Another word for "barn" in Old English was beretun, "barley enclosure" (with tun "enclosure, house"), which accounts for the many Barton place names on the English map, and the common surname.

Applied from early 18c. to any large, barn-like building. Barn door has been used figuratively for "broad target" since 1670s and "great size" since 1540s. Barn-owl attested by 1670s. Barn-raising "a collective effort by neighbors or community members to erect the frame of a barn for one of them, accompanied by a social gathering" is attested by 1849.

Old English polente, "a kind of barley meal," from Latin pollenta, polenta, literally "peeled barley," related to pollen "powder, fine flour" (see pollen), but the ultimate origin is uncertain. English later reborrowed it 19c. from Italian polenta (from the Latin word) for "porridge made of corn (maize)," a principal food in northern Italy, originally made from chestnut meal.

1707, "dust, powdery substance," from Latin farina "ground wheat, flour, meal," from far (genitive farris) "husked wheat, emmer; grain, flour," from Proto-Italic *fars "flour," from PIE *bhars-, with cognates in Old Irish bairgen "bread, loaf," Welsh bara "bread," Serbo-Croatian brašno "flour, food," Latvian bariba "food," Gothic barizeins "from barley," Old Norse barr "grain," Old English bere "barley;" according to de Vaan perhaps a loan-word from a non-IE language.

early 15c., from Old French ferment (14c.), from Latin fermentum "leaven, yeast; drink made of fermented barley;" figuratively "anger, passion" (see ferment (v.)). Figurative sense of "anger, passion, commotion" in English is from 1670s.