Barn (building)

A barn is an agricultural building usually located on farms and used for various purposes. In the North American area, a barn refers to structures that house , including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain. As a result, the term barn is often qualified e.g. tobacco barn, dairy barn, sheep barn, potato barn. In the British Isles, the term barn is restricted mainly to storage structures for unthreshed cereals and fodder, the terms byre or shippon being applied to cow shelters, whereas horses are kept in buildings known as stables. On the Continent, however, barns were often part of integrated structures known as byre-dwellings (or housebarns in US literature). In addition, barns may be used for equipment storage, as a covered workplace, and for activities such as threshing.

The word barn comes from the Old English bere, for barley (or grain in general), and aern, for a storage place—thus, a storehouse for barley. “Another word for 'barn' in Old English was beretun, "barley enclosure" (from tun: 'enclosure,' 'house', or beretun (barton), also meaning a threshing floor. In historical times, the barn was to be distinguished from the granary, which was used to store threshed grain or cut off ears. Now, however, the common English name for a grain storage building is granary.

Modern barns may include a stable, from Latin stabulum ‘stall, fold, aviary’ (literally "a standing place,"),byre (‘cow shed’, from bower which is from Old English bur— "room, hut, dwelling, chamber," from Proto-Germanic *buraz (cf. Old Norse bur "chamber," Swedish bur "cage," Old High German bur "dwelling, chamber," German Bauer "birdcage")...”, or stall, “...place in a stable for animals," from Old English steall "place where cattle are kept, place, position," and Proto-Germanic *stallaz (cf. Old Norse stallr "pedestal for idols, altar," Old Frisian stal, Old High German stall "stand, place, stable, stall," German Stall "stable," Stelle "place".

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