French word barre comes from Gaulish *barros, Proto-Indo-European *bʰébʰrus (Beaver.)
| Dictionary entry | Language | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| *barros | Gaulish (cel-gau) | |
| *bʰébʰrus | Proto-Indo-European (ine-pro) | Beaver. |
| *barra | Vulgar Latin (la-vul) | |
| *barra | Latin (lat) | (Vulgar Latin) bar. (Vulgar Latin) barrier. |
| barre | Old French (fro) | Bar (solid, more or less rigid object with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length). |
| barre | Middle French (frm) | |
| barre | French (fra) | (heraldiccharge) bend sinister. (nautical) helm, tiller. (typography) : the bar diacritics ⟨̵⟩, ⟨̶⟩, ⟨̷⟩, and ⟨̸⟩. (typography) : the fraction slash ⟨⁄⟩. (typography) : the pipe mark ⟨|⟩. (typography) : the slash mark ⟨/⟩. (typography, improper) : the backslash ⟨\⟩. Bar, cake, ingot. |