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Bern

Pronunciation: /bɜː(ɹ)n/

The English word “Bern” has 1 meaning listed here.

proper noun

  1. A canton of Switzerland.

Etymology

From Alemannic German Bärn, of uncertain further origin. A popular folk etymology says it was named by its founder, Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen, after the first animal he saw in the area, a Bär(in) (“bear”) (compare Berlin, subject to a similar folk etymology). The name is now thought to be connected to a Celtic word, Proto-Celtic *berna (“cleft”) (from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to carve…

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