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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

barmy.

Containing, covered with, or pertaining to barm (“foam rising upon beer or other malt liquors when fermenting, used as leaven in brewing and making bread”).

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈbɑːmi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɑɹmi/General-American
  1. Containing, covered with, or pertaining to barm (“foam rising upon beer or other malt liquors when fermenting, used as leaven in brewing and making bread”).

    also · archaic · figuratively
  2. Bubbling with activity or excitement; active, excited.

    archaic · figuratively
Where this word comes from

From barm (“foam rising upon beer or other malt liquors when fermenting, and used as leaven”) + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives). Barm is derived from Middle English berm, berme (“foam rising upon ale or beer fermenting; leaven, yeast; foam or head of beer produced by pouring”) [and other forms], from Old English beorma (“foam or head of beer; leaven, yeast”), from Proto-West Germanic *bermō (“barm; yeast”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil; to brew”) or *gʷʰer- (“warm; hot”).

adj/ˈbɑːmi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɑɹmi/General-American
  1. Crazy, mad; also, eccentric, odd, strange.

    Ireland · UK · archaic · informal
  2. Very foolish.

    Ireland · UK · archaic · informal
Where this word comes from

Probably an alteration of balmy (“foolish; slightly crazy or mad, eccentric”), influenced by barm (“foam rising upon beer or other malt liquors when fermenting, and used as leaven”) (see etymology 1).

noun/ˈbɑːmi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɑɹmi/General-American
  1. bar mitzvah

    Ireland · UK · archaic · informal
Where this word comes from

Clipping of bar mitzvah.

noun/ˈbɑːmi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɑɹmi/General-American
  1. plural of barma (“a regal Russian mantle or neckpiece made of gold, encrusted with diamonds and other gems”)

    Ireland · UK · archaic · form-of · informal · plural
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Russian бармы (barmy).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.