bairn

The word 'bairn' descends directly from the Old English 'bearn', a common Germanic term for a child. It is related to the Old Norse 'barn' and the Old High German 'barn', all sharing the same core meaning. While it became largely obsolete in standard southern English after the Middle English period, it survived robustly in Scots and in dialects of Northern England and Scotland. Its persistence in these regional varieties preserves a direct linguistic link to the early Germanic vocabulary for family and kinship.

This is a simplex word of Old English origin. The root is the Old English noun 'bearn', meaning 'child' or 'son'.