An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Birne

by Friedrich Kluge

Birne, feminine, ‘pear’; the n belongs properly to the inflexion; Middle High German bir (and still dialectic), plural birn; Old High German bira, ‘pear.’ Derived from the Latin pĭrum, or rather plural pĭra. On account of the initial b of the German word, the date at which it was borrowed can hardly be placed earlier than the 9th century. The Goth applied to the ‘mulberry-tree’ the apparently cognate term baírabagms. English pear, Anglo-Saxon peru, Dutch peer, are based upon the Romance word (Italian and Spanish pera), derived from Latin pirum. Respecting the change of gender see Pflaume.