3. (old.)—A gratuity given to grooms by the buyers and sellers of
horses.—Lexicon Balatronicum (1811).
4. (old.)—A constant attendant; he who, or that which sticks to one
like a barnacle to a ship’s bottom.
1607. Dekker, Northward Hoe! III., wks., 1873, III., 39. Ile
cashiere all my yong barnicles. [M.]
1868. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, I., i., 7. Slopper found
him a species of barnacle rather difficult to shake off.
5. (old cant.)—A decoy swindler; from the pertinacity with which such a
one fastens on to a victim, and will not be shaken off until the
purpose in view is effected. Cf., senses 1 and 4.
1591. Greene, Notable Discovery of Coosnage (1859), 23. Thus doth
the Verser and the Setter feign a kind friendship to the Cony....
As thus they sit tippling, coms the barnackle and thrusts open the
doore ... steps back again: and very mannerly saith I cry you
mercy, Gentlemen. I thoght a frend of mine had bin heere.
1608. Dekker, Belman of London, wks. (1885) III., 131. He that ...
before counterfeited the dronken Bernard is now sober and called
the barnacle.
6. (old.)—An individual speaking with a nasal twang; one who speaks
through his nose.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dictionary. Gango, a barnacle, one that
speaketh through the nose, Chenolopex. [Chenalopex in Pliny, a
species of goose.] [M.]
Barnacles, subs. (popular).—1. Spectacles. Formerly applied only to
spectacles with side pieces of coloured glass, and used more as
protectors from wind, dust, and glaring light than as aids to the
sight. Hence used popularly for all kinds of glasses. The derivation
seems uncertain. The principal suggested origins are:—(1) a corruption
of binoculis [from Latin bini, double, + oculus, an eye]; (2) an
attributive usage of barnacles, which, with ‘horse-twitchers’ or
‘brakes,’ are tools put on the nostrils of horses when they will not
stand still to be shooed; and in support of this it has been pointed
out [N. and Q., 1 S., v., 13] the figure of the barnacle borne in
heraldry sufficiently shows why the term has been transferred to
spectacles, which were formerly only kept in position by the manner in
which they clipped the nose; (3) that barnacles are so called from the
similarity in shape to the black streak which proceeds from the upper
part of the beak in a line to the corner of, and right round the eye of
the bernicle, or barnacle goose (Anser bernicla). There is a strong
resemblance in the mark to a pair of spectacles.
1571. Damon and Pythias (Dodsley’s Old Plays), Hazlett IV., 81.
These spectacles put on. Grim. They be gay barnacles, yet I see
never the better.
1653. Sir Thomas Urquhart, Translation of Rabelais, bk. V., ch.
xxvii. They had barnacles on the handles of their faces, or
spectacles at most.
The difference between spectacles and barnacles seems to be indicated
in this passage. In the original French the phrase reads ‘bezicles au
nez.’ A later quotation illustrative of the usage is:
1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. i. ‘Give me the barnacles,
my good youth, and who can say what nose they may bestride in two
years hence?’
English Synonyms. ‘Bossers’; ‘gig-lamps’; ‘goggles.’ A man wearing
these aids to sight is sometimes called ‘four eyes’ (q.v.).
French Synonyms. Les persiennes (popular: properly ‘venetian
shutters’); une vitrine (popular: literally ‘a shop window,’ or glass
case in a museum).