Barn a by bright (barnabibrit)

[Also Barnaby bright, Barnaby the bright, and (Scott, L. of L. M., iv. 4) St. Barn a bright; also called Long Barnaby, in ref. to the coincidence of Barnaby day with the summer solstice.] The day of St. Barnabas the Apostle, the 11th of June, which in old style was the day of the summer solstice. Barnaby- bright , the longest day and the shortest night. This day the sunne is in his chiefest hight, With Barnaby the bright. Old rime. Spenser , Epithalamion, 1. 266. Barnaby day. Same as Barnaby - bright . barnaclel (bär-na-kl), n. [Also barnicle , bernacle; barnakylle , be rna kill , bernacle , appar. a dim. of the earlier bernake , bernak , ber nack, bernekke ; cf. OF. bernaque (ML. bernaca , berneka), later F. bernache , mod. barnache , barnacle = Sp. bernache = Pg. bernaca , berna cha , bernicha = It. bernacla , later ML. or NL. bernicla , bernecla , bernacula ; G. bernikel - gans , Dan. bernakel - gaas . Ultimate origin unknown. The word seems to have arisen in England. The oldest ME. form, bernekke , could be simply 'bare-neck,' with a po ible allusion to the large white patches on the bird's neck and head. If this were a popular designation, it could easily, when taken into book-language and Latinized, a ume the above and the other numerous corrupt forms (ML. bernicha , bernecha , ber nescha, bernesta , etc.) in which it appears. The lo of a knowledge of its meaning would a ist the growth of the fables connected with the word.] 1. A species of wild goose, Anser ber Barnacle-goose ( Bernicla leucopsis). nicla or Bernicla leucopsis, also called barnacle goose or bernacle - goose. It is one of several species of the genus Bernicla, inhabiting the northern parts of Europe, and occasionally appearing as a straggler in North America. It is smaller than the various wild geese of the genus Anser proper, has dark-brown or blackish upper parts, and a black neck and head, with large white patches. It is related to the common wild goose of North America, B. can a dens is, and still more closely to the brent or brant goose, Bernicla brent a. This bird, which was known in the British islands only as a visitor, became the subject of a curious popular fable, not yet extinct, being believed to be bred from a tree growing on the sea-shore, either from the fruit of the tree or as itself the fruit (hence called tree goose ), or from a shell-fish which grew on this tree (see def. 2), or from rotting wood in the water. So rotten planks of broken ships do change To Barnacles . 'Twas first a green tree, then a broken hull, Lately a Mushroom, now a flying Gull. Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas, i. 6. 2. A species of stalked cirriped, Lepas anati fer a, of the family Lepadidæ, found hanging in clusters by the long peduncle to the bottoms of ships, to floating timber, or to submerged wood of any kind; the goose-mu el, fabled to fall from its support and turn into a goose (see def. 1). The name is sometimes extended or transferred to various other cirripeds, as the se ile acorn-shells or sea acorns of the family Balanidæ, such as Balanus tintinna bulum. See Balanus. This is the usual sense of the word, except in Great Britain. A barnacle may be said to be a crustacean fixed by its head, kicking the food into its mouth with legs. Huxley, Anat. Invert., p. 256. IMG:content-1680.png:[blocks in formation] shipment of sailors in American ports, are all barnacles which impede the progre of our commercial marine. D. A. Wells, Merchant [Marine, p. 181. (b) A person holding on tenaciously to a place or position; Barnacle ( Lepas an at if era ). one who is a usele or incompetent fixture in an office or employment; a follower who will not be dismi ed or shaken off. 4t. [Cf. barnard.] A decoy swindler. [Cant.] barnacle1 (bär'na-kl), v. t.; pret. and pp. bar nacled, ppr. barn a cling. [ He barnacled himself to Gershon, now, and shipped with him always. Mrs. Whitney, Gayworthys, xxiv.