Also 7–9 barr-. [a. F. baragouin, f. Breton bara bread + gwîn wine (Littré), or gwenn white, in reference to the astonishment of Breton soldiers at the sight of white bread (Roulin in Littré, Supp.); used by the French of any outlandish language or unintelligible speech.] Language so altered in sound or sense as to become generally unintelligible; jargon, ‘double-Dutch.’ Hence Baragouinish a.
a. 1613. Overbury, Charac. Lawyer, Wks. (1856), 84. He thinks no language worth knowing but his Barragouin.
1801. W. Taylor, in Month. Mag., XI. 646. The barragouin of a professional lawyer. Ibid., XII. 99. The parliamentary use of the word [committee] is anomalous; it there means the collective body of persons … and, in that baragouinish sense, is accented on the second syllable.
1860. All Y. Round, No. 46. 461. Some horrible patois and baragouin of his own.
