baron, barron, baro, bar, ber, paro, var, viro, virro, viron

[A.S. baron a man ( Bosworth ); Sw., Dan., Dut., Ger., & Fr. baron = baron; O. Fr. ber (acc. baron ), bairon; Prov. bar (acc. baro); Sp. baron, var on = (1) a male, (2) a full-grown man, (3) a man of consideration, (4) a baron; Port. varao a male; Ital. barone; Low Lat. baro, bar us, varo, viro = man, husband, baron; but in Cla . Lat. baro, which, according to Menage, is the origin of baron, meant a simpleton, a blockhead, though sometimes it is said to have been used for a brave man, a warrior. Cognate with A.S. wera man; Goth. vair; Gael, bar, bera hero, an eminent man; Ir. fir, fear; Wel. guer, gevir; Lat. vir = a man; Lith. vyrus; Sansc. vira. (VIRILE.) In Sanse. also barrem and bharta are = husband, and may be compared with baron in the phrase baron and feme (see A., III.). Compare, also Hebrew גֶבֶר ) geber ) = a man.[ A. Of persons: + I. Old Law: A husband in relation to his wife, used in the old phrase baron and feme = husband and wife. (Black stone: Comment., bk. i., ch. 15.) II. History & Law: *1. Formerly: (1) At first apparently every lord of a manor, of which sense the expre ion court bar on is still a memorial. [COURT-BARON.] The Magna Charta granted in King John's time seems to show that originally all lords of manors, who held of the king in capite , had seats in the Great Council or Parliament; but their numbers becoming too large for proper deliberation, the king summoned only the greater barons in person, leaving it to the sheriff to convene the smaller ones to another house, which was a very important step in making the separation which at present exists between the Houses of Lords and Commons. ( Black stone , bk. i., ch. 3.) [BARONY.] Hence * (2) the term baron came to be confined to the lords of manors summoned by the royal writ in place of by the sheriff. The writ ran "Hac vice tantum." ( Black stone: Ibid .) Barons by ancient tenure were those who held certain lands or territories from the king, who, however, still reserved the tenure in chief to himself. Barons by temporal tenure were those who held their honours, castles, and manors as heads of their barony, that is, by grand serjeantry. By their tenure they were summoned to Parliament; now they are not entitled to be there till a writ is i ued in their favour. (3) Richard II. made the term baron a mere title of honour, by conferring it on various persons by letters patent. ( Black stone , bk. i., ch. 3.) The first baron by patent was John Beauchamp of Holt, who was raised to the peerage by Richard II., in the eleventh year of his reign, October 10, 1387, by the title of Baron of Kidder minster. No other instance occurs until 10 Henry VI. 2. Now : (1) Any nobleman belonging to the lowest order of the peerage that immediately beneath the rank of viscount. His style is "The Right Hon. Lord-," and he is addre ed as "My Lord." In general, in place of being called "Baron, he is simply termed "Lord A." or "B." His coronet has six large pearls set at equal distances on the chaplet. His coronation robes are like those of an earl, except that he has CORONET OF A BARON. only two rows of spots on each shoulder. At present (1892) there are 294 temporal barons in the House, with 24 bishops, who are also regarded as barons, but they take precedence over the temporal barons. (2) Anyone holding a particular office to which the title baron is or was attached, as the Chief Baron and the Barons of the Exchequer. [EXCHEQUER.) Formerly there were also Barons of the Cinque Ports, viz., two to each of the seven following towns: Hastings, Win chelsea, Rye, Romney, Hythe, Dover, and Sandwich. Till the Reform Bill of 1832 these had seats in Parliament. Instead of these barons there is now a Warden of the Cinque Ports. "They that bear The cloth of honour over her, are four barons Of the cinque ports." Shakesp.: Henry VIII ., iv. 1. III. Heraldry. Baron and Feme is the term applied where the coats of arms of a man and his wife are borne per pale in the same escutcheon. If the woman is not an heire , then the man's coat is on the dexter side, and the woman's on the sinister; if she is, then her coat must be borne by the husband on an escutcheon of pretence. B. Of things. Baron of Beef: Beef in which the two sirloins are not cut asunder, but joined together by the end of the backbone. Dr. Brewer says that it is "so called because it is the baron (back part) of the ox, called in Danish the rug. It is not so called because it is 'greater' than the sir-loin."