The Old English word for barley was bere, which traces back to Proto-Indo-European and is cognate to the Latin word farina "flour".

The direct ancestor of modern English barley in Old English was the derived adjective bærlic, meaning "of barley".
The first citation of the form bærlic in the Oxford English Dictionary dates to around 966 CE, in the compound word bærlic-croft.
 
The underived word bære survives in the north of Scotland as bere, and refers to a specific strain of six-row barley grown there.

The word barn, which originally meant "barley-house", is also rooted in these words.

The Latin word hordeum, used as barley's scientific genus name, is derived from an Indo-European root meaning "bristly" after the long prickly awns of the ear of grain.
The Old English word for barley was bere, which traces back to Proto-Indo-European and is cognate to the Latin word farina "flour".
The direct ancestor of modern English barley in Old English was the derived adjective bærlic, meaning "of barley". The first citation of the form bærlic in the Oxford English Dictionary dates to around 966 CE, in the compound word bærlic-croft.  
The underived word bære survives in the north of Scotland as bere, and refers to a specific strain of six-row barley grown there.
The word barn, which originally meant "barley-house", is also rooted in these words.
The Latin word hordeum, used as barley's scientific genus name, is derived from an Indo-European root meaning "bristly" after the long prickly awns of the ear of grain.
Barley