Meaning

noun a narrow ledge or shelf typically at the top or bottom of a slope

noun a narrow edge of land (usually unpaved) along the side of a road

originFrom Dutch berm (“strip of roadside grass, verge”), probably via French berme, from Middle Dutch barm, baerm, barem (“verge, bank”), from Old Dutch *barm, from Proto-West Germanic *barm, from Proto-Germanic *barmaz (“edge, border, seam”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0