Other forms: barbs
A barb is a backward point on a hook or an arrow that stops it pulling out. A barbed hook, remove the barb, the barb caught.
Barbless hooks are used in catch-and-release angling because a barb does real damage on removal. Barbed wire has them along its length. Figuratively, a barb is a wounding remark: a barb aimed at somebody, a few well-aimed barbs. Note barbed, which describes both the wire and the comment; and that barb comes from the Latin for a beard, which is what the points look like.
1nounbarbA backward point on a hook or arrow.
“The barb had to be cut off before anything could be removed.”
2nounwoundingA wounding remark.
“His barb about her cooking hurt more than she let him see.”
barb is a point or sharp remark.
Latin barba means a beard, and the points on a hook were named for their resemblance to one. Barber and barbecue share the root, the second by a longer and stranger route.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰardʰéh₂
Old French
barbe — beard, beard-like element
Middle French
barbe
Middle English
barbe
English, today
barb
From Middle English barbe, from Middle French barbe, from Old French barbe (“beard, beard-like element”). a doublet of beard.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA