Feminine

🍐

Birne

Meaning

(feminine) pear
(feminine) lightbulb
(colloquial, feminine) head, bonce, noggin

pear-tree

European pear

glow lamp

Denkzentrum

Caput

Dötz

ewige Kanzler

Dicke von Oggersheim

Kanzler der Einheit

schwarze Riese

Leuchtkörper

Zuckermelone

Helmut Kohl

Denkapparat

Glühfadenlampe

Glühlicht

Bimbeskanzler

αχλάδι

pera

Frequency

Basel-Landschaft

biire

St. Gallen

beara

Data provided by: Deutsch-Schweizerdeutsches Wörterbuch

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈbɪrnə/

Cognate with Swiss German

Bire

In summary

From Middle High German bire, bir, from Old High German bira, pira, from Vulgar Latin pira, reanalysis of the plural of Latin pirum. Early Modern German birn is from the Middle High German plural and dative/genitive singular, whence a double plural birnen was formed. The contemporary Birne is a new backformation from this plural (perhaps influenced also by the older, still dialectal form bire). Thus, between Latin and modern German, the word was reformed on the basis of the plural three times. Cognate with Alemannic German Bire.