beorn

noun. man

A noun for “man” that developed from the blending of primitive ᴹ✶besnō “man” and ᴹ✶berō “valiant man, warrior” > ber(n)ō (Ety/BER, BES). The simplest explanation is that ᴹ✶besnō > beznō > bernō, where first the [[dan|[s] voiced to [z] before the nasal [n]]] and then the resulting [[dan|[z] becoming [r]]]. The similarity of this word to ᴹ✶berō could have led it to develop into ber(n)ō as well. From there, the [[dan|[e] broke into the diphthong [eo] before the liquid [r]]] and then the final vowel vanished.