An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Barch

by Friedrich Kluge

Barch, masculine, ‘castrated hog,’ from Middle High German barc (barges), Old High German barug and barh; compare Anglo-Saxon bearh, bearg, English barrow, Dutch barg, berg, Old Icelandic bǫrgr; Gothic *bargws (*burgus). No evidence of a pre-Teutonic stem bhargh, bhark, for ‘hog, can be adduced from other languages. Latin verres and Sanscrit varâha-s, ‘boar,’ cannot be allied to it, any more than Latin porcus, which belongs to Ferkel. It is more probable that Russian borov (primitively Slavonic *borovŭ) is a cognate.