The Collaborative International Dictionary
Birk \Birk\, n. [See Birch, n.]
A birch tree. [Prov. Eng.] ``The silver birk.''
--Tennyson.
Birk \Birk\, n. (Zo["o]l.) A small European minnow ( Leuciscus phoxinus).
Wikipedia
Birk may refer to:
- Birk (market place), a demarcated area with its own laws and privileges, the Bjarkey laws
- Reykjavík Airport's ICAO code
- Birk (name)
- Birk, the German name for Petelea Commune, Mureș County, Romania
Birk (biærk, berck, byrck) was during the Scandinavian Middle Ages the name for a demarcated area, especially a town or a market place, with its own laws and privileges, the Bjarkey laws.
In Denmark, the name was to be used also for other areas than towns and markets. These areas were exempted from the ordinary jurisdictions of the hundreds and the towns. There were royal, ecclesiastical and aristocratic birks with their own law courts and birk assemblies. After the Protestant Reformation, the ecclesiastical birks passed to the king.
The royal birks were after some time abolished, but more and more aristocratic ones were established, where the aristocratic landlord (the patronus) appointed birk judges, birk bailiffs, and birk notaries. The aristocratic birk privilege (known by the same name as Bjarkey laws, birkerett) was reduced in 1809 and it was completely abolished in 1849. The term birk was to endure for some time, however.
In Norway, some counties, baronies and noble estates also had birk privileges, but they were abolished in 1821.
Some scholars have proposed that the place name Birka would have origins in birk, but this theory has not been generally accepted.
Birk is both a surname and a masculine given name. Notable people with the name include:
Surname:
- Ado Birk (1883–1942), Estonian former Prime Minister
- Alma Birk (1917–1996), English journalist and politician
- Anne Birk (1942–2009), German writer
- Matt Birk (born 1976), American professional football player
- Raye Birk (born 1943), American actor
- Thomas Birk (born 1988), German footballer
- Yehudith Birk (1926–2013), Polish-born Israeli biochemist
Given name:
- Birk Anders (born 1964), German biathlete
- Birk Balthazar, father of Sofia the First
- Birk Engstrøm (born 1950), Norwegian footballer
- Birk Sproxton (1943–2007), Canadian poet and novelist
Usage examples of "birk".
Not until he was almost there did Birk remember that the old handset had been replaced by a vuphone.
Both the newcomers had lived in the neighborhood when Maggie Birk worked at the house across the street and met her untimely death.
Mike Weitzel denied any clear memory of Maggie Birk, he glanced consistently over his left shoulder.
I came over and called on you sometime as well, since you lived here when Maggie Birk did?
Gerald Pinson looked as if reminiscing about Maggie Birk was the last thing he wanted to do.
Maggie Birk who lived in the neighborhood for a short time about thirty years ago.
Maggie Birk had huddled under that same window in the grip of some unimaginable horror, scribbling in her diary to keep from going mad.
Her former neighbor was still in a detention home for elderly offenders, undergoing psychological assessment to determine if he was fit to stand trial for his part in those long-ago deaths of Maggie Birk and his own newborn grandchild.
Patrick knew the names, Abelove, Birk, Felice-Marie, Val, Glib or was it Geib.
To be-well, not just my personal assistant, like Birk, but someone more trusted.
One person, Grace Birk, a middle-aged woman who worked at the bank, took three, and a man stepped down from the curb to help her carry them without crushing them.
She curved one of her legs over his, unconcerned that Birk was in the room.
He exchanged a few words with Birk and then appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
Lord Buchan, instructing him to pull birks on the Yarrow, broom on the Cowden-knowes, and not to neglect to admire the ruins of Drybrugh Abbey, Burns set out on a border tour, accompanied by Robert Ainslie, of Berrywell.
Outside Birks Hall I nearly collided with a tall young man walking head down, his hair and glasses coated with snowflakes the size of luna moths.