barm

Meaning

Noun

1. Foam rising upon beer or other malt liquors when fermenting, used as leaven in brewing and making bread; yeast.
2. A small, round, flat individual loaf or roll of bread.

Verb

To spurge; foam

Synonyms

yeast

leaven

mother

👩‍🍼

zyme

Pronounced as (IPA)

/bɑːm/

Etymology

From Middle English berme, berm, from Old English beorma, from Proto-West Germanic *bermō (“yeast; barm”); related to the dialectal Low German Bärm (“yeast”), from Middle Low German barm, berm. The cake sense is possibly a shortened form of barmcake, which would be made with yeast as described in that sense, or possibly it is from the Irish bairín breac, a type of bread.