Forms: α. 2 bernac, 5 bernak(e, bernag. β. 4–6 bernacle, 5 barnakylle, -alle, byrnacle, (6 barneckle, burnacle), 7–8 barnicle, 9 bernicle, 4– barnacle. [ME. bernak, a. OF. bernac ‘camus’; of which bernacle seems to be a dim. form: cf. OF. bernicles in Joinville c. 1275, in sense of the instrument of torture (sense 2) as used by the Saracens, for which Marsh has suggested an oriental origin, comparing Pers. baran-dan to compress, squeeze, baranjah kar-dan to inflict torture. But, so far as evidence goes, I was the earliest sense, and of western origin. The sense of ‘spectacles’ seems to arise naturally enough from the others, but has been treated by some as distinct, and referred to OF. béricle (since 15th c. bésicle) ‘eye glass,’ originally ‘beryl’:—late L. *bericulus, dim. of berillus, beryllus: it is not easy to trace any phonetic connection between this and barnacles, even though the mod.F. dialect of Berry has berniques ‘spectacles.’]
1. A kind of powerful bit or twitch for the mouth of horse or ass, used to restrain a restive animal; later, spec. an instrument consisting of two branches joined by a hinge, placed on the nose of a horse, if he has to be coerced into quietness when being shoed or surgically operated upon.
α. [c. 1200. Neckam, De Utensilibus, in Wright, Voc., 100. Camum (bernac), vel capistrum (chevestre) sponte pretereo.]
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 33. Bernak for horse [1499 bernakill], chamus.
1468. Medulla Gram., in Cath. Angl., 22. Chamus, a bernag for a hors.
a. 1500. in Wülcker, Voc., /572. Chamus, a bernake.
β. 1382. Wyclif, Prov. xxvi. 3. A scourge to an hors, and a bernacle to an asse.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. I. 353. Þey dryueþ hir hors wiþ a chambre ȝerde [virgam cameratam] in þe ouer ende in stede of barnacles.
1483. Cath. Angl., 22/1. Barnakylle, Byrnacle, Barnakalle, camus.
1562. Leigh, Armorie (1597), 104. Barnacle … is the chiefest instrument that the smith hath, to make the vntamed horsse gentile.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 251. Barnacles … put upon the Horses nose, to restrain his tenacious fury from biting, and kicking.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., I. i. (1862), I. 245, note. The horse … being caught by the nose in barnacles.
1831. Youatt, Horse, xxii. (1872), 457. The barnacles are the handles of the pincers placed over and enclosing the muzzle.
2. An instrument of torture applied in a similar way. Also fig.
[1382. Wyclif, 2 Kings xix. 28. I schal putten a cercle in thyn noos thrillis and a bernacle [Coverdale, brydle bitt; 1611 bridle] in thi lippis.]
1625. trans. Gonsalvio’s Sp. Inquis., 145. Clapped a Barnacle vpon his tongue, which remained there vntill the fire had consumed it.
1679. Hist. Jetzer, Pref. Magistrates may flatter themselves, that with the Barnacles of a strict and well-worded Oath they can hold a Jesuites Nose to the Grind-stone.
1870. Edgar, Runnymede, 109. To save my body from the bernicles.
3. colloq. in pl. = SPECTACLES. [Probably from their bestriding and pinching the nose.]
1571. Damon & P., in Hazl., Dodsl., IV. 81. These spectacles put on. Grim, They be gay barnacles, yet I see never the better.
1593. Munday, Def. Contraries, 39. Eye glasses, otherwise called Bernacles.
1693. Motteux, Rabelais, V. xxvii. They had barnicles on the handles of their faces, or spectacles at most.
1823. Scott, Peveril, viii. No woman above sixteen ever did white-seam without barnacles.
