Forms: 4 bacoun, 4–5 bakoun, 5 bacun, 5–6 bakon, 6 baken, 5– bacon. [a. OF. bacon, -un (= Pr. bacon, med.L. bacōn-em), a. OHG. bahho, bacho, MHG. bache, backe, buttock, ham, side of bacon:—OTeut. *bakon-, cogn. w. *bako-z, BACK sb.1; cf. ODu. baken bacon.]
1. The back and sides of the pig, ‘cured’ by salting, drying, etc. Formerly also the fresh flesh now called pork.
c. 1330. Poem temp. Edw. II., 388, in Pol. Songs, 341. For beof ne for bakoun … Unnethe wolde eny do a char.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 194. As a bondman of his bacoun his berde was bidraueled.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wyf’s Prol., 217. The bacoun was nought fet for hem … That som men fecche in Essex at Donmowe.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714), 73. In Fraunce, the People salten but litill meate, except their Bacon.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 121. Her [a sow’s] body … wyll be as good baken as a hogge.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, iii. 53. Bacon is not good for them that haue weake stomacks.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. xxxi. 181. A regular allowance of bacon was distributed to the poorer citizens.
† 2. The carcase of a pig; rarely a live pig. Obs.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 2696. Wyþ grys, & gees, & capouns … Wiþ motoun, & bef & bakouns.
1549–52. in Strype, Cranmer, App. xlix. 137. Ye are like for to be taken, And quartered like a baken.
1592. Kyd, Span. Trag., Wks. (1901), 59 (T.). A young Bacon, Or a fine little smooth Horse-colt.
1768. Pennant, Zool., I. 17. The carcases of … 80 beeves, 600 bacons, and 600 muttons.
3. transf. The blubber of a whale. ? Obs.
1712. Phil. Trans., XXVII. 446. The Fat of a Whale, which we call Bacon, and out of which we boil the Train-Oyl.
† 4. A rustic, a clown, a ‘chaw-bacon.’ Obs. (Referring, like many of the compounds, to the fact of swine’s flesh being the meat chiefly consumed by the rural population of England.)
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. ii. 93. On Bacons, on, what ye knaues? Yong men must liue.
5. Phrases: a. To save one’s bacon: to escape injury to one’s body, to keep oneself from harm. b. To sell one’s bacon, i.e., one’s flesh or body.
1691. The Weesils, i. 5. No, they’l conclude I do’t to save my Bacon.
1693. in Catal. (fictitious) Bks., in Harl. Misc. (1745), V. 269/2. In dubiis tutior pars: Or, the broad Way to save a Man’s Bacon, and damn his Soul.
1812. Combe (Dr. Syntax), Pictur., VI. 22. But as he ran to save his bacon, By hat and wig he was forsaken.
1825. Carlyle, Schiller, III. (1845), 163. To the Kaiser, therefore, I sold my bacon, And by him good charge of the whole is taken.
6. Comb. and Attrib., as bacon-curer, -factor, -merchant, bacon-flitch, -ham, -pot, -rack, -rind. Bacon-brains, a clownish blockhead; bacon-face(d, having a fat sleek face; bacon-farced a., stuffed with bacon; bacon-fed a., fed on bacon, rustic, clownish; bacon-hog, -pig, one specially fattened for making bacon; † bacon-man, a curer of, or dealer in, bacon; † bacon-picker, opprobrious name for a glutton; † bacon-slicer, a rustic.
a. 1634. Randolph, Answ. B. Jonson, Poems (1668), 56. Their *bacon-brains have such a tast, As more delights in mast.
1684. Otway, Atheist, I. A broad shining, pufft, *Bacon-face, like a Cherubim.
1731. Pol. Ballads (1860), II. 223. He opulent grew, As bacon-face Jew.
c. 1600. Day, Begg. Bednell Gr. (1881), 37. I’de hang this *Bacon-fac’d slave orethwart his shanks.
1646. G. Daniel, Poems, Wks. 1878, I. 45. A Pheasant, *bacon-farc’d.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. ii. 89. *Bacon-fed Knaues … downe with them.
1462. Test. Ebor. (1855), II. 261. *Bakon-fliks, beffe-flicks.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, II. xviii. 57. Provided with a *bacon ham, hung-beef, fowls, [etc.].
1709. Kennett, Erasm. Moriæ Enc., 17 (D.). As lusty as so many bacon-hogs or sucking calves.
1707. Lond. Gaz., No. 4349/4. Whitfeild Miller, late of Oxford, *Bacon-man.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. Prol. A certaine gulligut Fryer and true *bacon-picker.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 195. His *bacon pigs, his porkers, his breeding sows.
1789. G. White, Selborne (1851), 209. She saves the scummings of her *bacon-pot [to make rush-lights].
1826. Miss Mitford, Village, II. (1863), 446. The fully stored *bacon-rack.
1606. Wily Beguiled, in Hazl., Dodsl., IX. 244. Whose eyes do shine, Like *bacon-rine.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Coënne de lard, a *Bacon skin.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xv. Account me a very clounch, and *bacon-slicer of Brene.
