An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Barsch

by Friedrich Kluge

Barsch, masculine, ‘perch,’ from the equivalent Middle High German bars, masculine; there is also a derivative form Middle High German and Old High German bersich; compare the corresponding Dutch baars, Anglo-Saxon bœrs, bears, English dialectic barse (bass); allied to the compounds Swedish abborre, Danish aborre (rr from rs), with the same meaning. The cognates cannot have been borrowed from the equivalent Latin perca; they are more akin to the Teutonic root bars (bors) in Borste, Bürste, signifying ‘to be bristly.’