barnacle

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See also: Barnacle

English

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Barnacles attached to a humpback whale
The barnacle goose
A barnacle in the form of wires and cut tracks on a printed circuit board

Etymology

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Uncertain, with long-debated origin. From Middle English barnakille, from earlier bernake, bernekke, most likely from Old Northern French bernaque (“barnacle”) (compare French barnache), probably from Medieval Latin barneca (“limpet”), probably from Gaulish (compare Welsh brennig, Irish báirneac), from Proto-Celtic *barinākos, from *barinā (“rock, rocky ground”) (compare Old Irish barenn (“boulder”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷr̥H- (“hill, mountain”) + Proto-Celtic *-ākos, from Proto-Indo-European *-kos, *-ḱos; for sense development, compare Ancient Greek λέπας (lépas, “rock”) which gave λεπάς (lepás, “limpet”).

First attestations referred to the goose, with corresponding folklore (q.v.).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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barnacle (plural barnacles)

  1. A marine crustacean of the subclass Cirripedia that attaches itself to submerged surfaces such as tidal rocks or the bottoms of ships.
    Hypernyms: arthropod, crustacean
  2. The barnacle goose.
  3. (engineering, slang) In electrical engineering, a change made to a product on the manufacturing floor that was not part of the original product design.
  4. (electronics, slang) On printed circuit boards, a change such as soldering a wire in order to connect two points, or addition such as an added resistor or capacitor, subassembly or daughterboard.
  5. (software engineering, slang) A deprecated or obsolete file, image or other artifact that remains with a project even though it is no longer needed.
    Synonym: (collectively) cruft
    (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
  6. (obsolete, in the plural) An instrument like a pair of pincers, to fix on the nose of a vicious horse while shoeing so as to make it more tractable.
    Synonym: twitch
  7. (archaic, British, slang, in the plural) A pair of spectacles.
  8. (slang, obsolete) A good job, or snack easily obtained.
  9. (slang) A worldly sailor.
    Synonym: shellback

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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barnacle (third-person singular simple present barnacles, present participle barnacling, simple past and past participle barnacled)

  1. To connect with or attach.
    • 2009, Liza Dalby, Hidden Buddhas: A Novel of Karma and Chaos, Stone Bridge Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 178:
      Tokuda went over everything his grandfather had taught him, including the commentary that had barnacled on to the core knowledge.
    • 2020, “YTK, Lunar Cartographer”, in Timmy's Unbuttoned Gen X Meditations, performed by Good Fuck:
      To dream that some things just barnacle to your heart, and it might take years, or it might always just be there.
  2. To press close against something.
    • 2002, Douglas Coupland, All Families Are Psychotic, Vintage Canada, published 2002, →ISBN, page 16:
      He turned a corner to where he supposed the cupboard might be, to find Howie and Alanna barnacled together in an embrace.

See also

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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