berth

• birth, byrth (obsolete)

Origin obscure. Possibly from Middle English *berth (“bearing, carriage”), equivalent to bear +‎ -th. This would make it a doublet of birth.

Alternatively, from an alteration of Middle English beard, bærde (“bearing, conduct”), itself of obscure formation. Compare Old English ġebǣru (“bearing, conduct, behaviour”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɜːθ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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• (US) enPR: bûrth, IPA^(key): /bɝθ/
• Homophone: birth
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)θ

berth (plural berths)

1. A fixed bunk for sleeping (in caravans, trains, etc).
   • 1909, Mary Roberts Rinehart, “A Torn Telegram”, in The Man in Lower Ten, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 27:

     Some passengers boarded the train there and I heard a woman's low tones, a southern voice, rich and full. Then quiet again. Every nerve was tense: time passed, perhaps ten minutes, possibly half an hour. Then, without the slightest warning, as the train rounded a curve, a heavy body was thrown into my berth.

   • 1944 November and December, “"Duplex Roomette" Sleeping Cars”, in Railway Magazine, page 324:

     It is realised that the old Pullman standard sleeper, with its convertible "sections", each containing upper and lower berths, and with no greater privacy at night than the curtains drawn along both sides of a middle aisle, has had its day.

2. Room for maneuvering or safety. (Often used in the phrase a wide berth.)
   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Chapter 3”, in The Return of Tarzan:

     Tarzan had been wont to traverse the Rue Maule on his way home at night. Because it was very quiet and very dark it reminded him more of his beloved African jungle than did the noisy and garish streets surrounding it. If you are familiar with your Paris you will recall the narrow, forbidding precincts of the Rue Maule. If you are not, you need but ask the police about it to learn that in all Paris there is no street to which you should give a wider berth after dark.

3. A space for a ship to moor or a vehicle to park.
4. (nautical) A room in which a number of the officers or ship's company mess and reside.
   • 1885, Alice MacDonald Kipling, Quartette, The Haunted Cabin:

     By what I then thought to be great good luck I had succeeded in getting a three-berth cabin for myself and my little boy alone—Nos. 45, 46, 47—on the starboard side of the ship.

5. A job or position, especially on a ship.
6. (sports) Position or seed in a tournament bracket.
7. (sports) position on the field of play
   • 2012 December 29, Paul Doyle, “Arsenal's Theo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle”, in The Guardian‎:

     Olivier Giroud then entered the fray and Walcott reverted to his more familiar berth on the right wing, quickly creating his side's fifth goal by crossing for Giroud to send a plunging header into the net from close range.

berth (third-person singular simple present berths, present participle berthing, simple past and past participle berthed)

1. (transitive) to bring (a ship or vehicle) into its berth/berthing
   • 1961 August, “New traffic flows in South Wales”, in Trains Illustrated, page 494:

     Further west, in Pembrokeshire, the Esso Petroleum Co. refinery at Milford Haven, opened last November, is designed to berth the world's largest tankers and to process, initially, 4,500,000 tons of crude oil a year.

   1. (astronautics) To use a device to bring a spaceship into its berth/dock
2. (transitive) to assign a berth (bunk or position) to

• IPA^(key): /bɛrθ/

From Middle Welsh berth, from Proto-Brythonic *berθ, from Proto-Celtic *berxtos.

berth (feminine singular berth, plural berthion, equative berthed, comparative berthach, superlative berthaf)

1. (obsolete) fair, fine, beautiful

• anferth (“colossal, gargantuan”)
• prydferth (“beautiful, handsome”)

berth

1. Soft mutation of perth (“hedge”).