barrow/borrow

[Rudolph C Troike]

I've heard only the form "borrow ditch" in Texas used to describe the
ditch along a roadside created by taking the soil out to form the roadbed.
However, I always suspected it of being a folk-etymological back-formation
from "bar-ditch", which was the form I heard first. (Phonologically, there
would be no difference there in the vowel to hinder this identification.)

        Rudy