What does bigg mean?
Bigg is a dialectal English noun meaning barley — specifically a coarse, four-rowed variety of the grain once widely grown across northern England and southern Scotland. Hardy and quick-maturing, bigg was a staple crop of small tenant farms for centuries, appearing in estate records, rent rolls, and rural verse as a humble but essential commodity alongside oats. The word entered English from Old Norse bygg, reflecting the heavy Scandinavian settlement of the regions where the crop and its name took hold, and it survives today mainly in Scots speech, historical accounts of agriculture, and antiquarian writing. To encounter bigg now is usually to meet it in older texts, where it evokes a pre-modern farming world of crofts, rigs, and hand threshing. Though obsolete in general usage, it remains a vivid reminder of how Norse influence shaped both the vocabulary and the countryside of northern Britain.
nounBigg is a chiefly British dialectal term for barley, especially a coarse four-rowed variety of barley formerly grown in northern England and Scotland.
- A coarse, four-rowed variety of barley, formerly widely cultivated in northern England and Scotland; barley in general in dialect use.
"The tenant farmer paid his rent partly in sacks of bigg."
"The crofters threshed the bigg by hand before the winter set in."
"Old estate records list rents owed in oats and bigg rather than coin."
The plural is used when referring to quantities or varieties of the grain.
"The granary held several sacks of biggs from the autumn harvest."
Before modern barley took over, Scottish farmers sowed 'bigg' — a hardy Norse loanword that has been growing in Britain for over a thousand years.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bigg
Bigg derives from Old Norse bygg, meaning barley, brought to northern Britain by Scandinavian settlers during the Viking Age. It became established in Scots and Northern English dialect, where it referred to a coarse four-rowed barley suited to the harsh climate. Cognates survive in the modern Scandinavian languages, such as Danish byg. The word has gradually fallen out of use, persisting only in dialect and historical contexts.
How bigg is actually used
Bigg is an archaic or regional term, now found mainly in Scots and Northern English dialect, in historical agricultural writing, and in literature. It carries a rustic, old-fashioned flavor and would strike most modern readers as obscure.
Easily confused with bigg
"Big" is a common adjective meaning large, while "bigg" is a rare noun referring to a coarse variety of barley.