Forms: α. 3 bernekke, 4–5 bernake, 5 bernak, -ack, (? barnagge). β. 5 bernakill, barnakylle, 5– bernacle, 6– barnacle, (7 barnicle, 9 bernicle). [ME. bernekke, bernake, identical with OF. bernaque, med.L. bernaca, berneka. (Other F. forms bernache, barnache; Pg. bernaca, -acha, -icha, Sp. bernache; med.L. also barnaces, bernesta, barneta, perhaps bad spellings). With the β. forms cf. med. or mod.L. bernicla, -ecela, -acula, and mod.F. bernicle, barnacle. Ulterior history unknown.
The earliest attainable forms (omitting barbates in Albertus Magnus and barliates in Vincentius Bellovacensis, which seem too far off) are the Eng. bernekke, Anglo-Lat. bernaca (Giraldus Cambr. c. 1175), barneta, ? barneca (Gervase of Tilbury c. 1211), berneka (Vincent. Bellovac. 1200–1250). If English, this could only be bare-neck or bear-neck, of which the application is not evident. The history of this word is involved in an extraordinary growth of popular mythology, traced back as far as the 11th or 12th c. by Prof. Max Müller, Lect. Sc. Lang. (ed. 7), II. 583–604. It is there suggested that bernacula might be a variant of *pernacula, a possible dim. of perna ‘a kind of shell-fish,’ afterwards confused with *bernicula, a supposed aphetic form of *hibernicula, which might be applied to the barnacle-goose from its being found in Hibernia. Others seek the source of the primitive bernaca in Celtic, comparing Gaelic bairneach, Welsh brenig, limpets. But as all the evidence shows that the name was originally applied to the bird which had the marvellous origin, not to the shell which, according to some, produced it, conjectures assuming the contrary seem to be beside the mark. The form bernacle, it will be seen, is not found before 15th c., and bernacula seems to be only its modern Lat. adaptation. If med.L. bernecla, bernicla, are earlier, they are suspiciously like erroneous forms of bernecha, bernicha. No connection with BARNACLE sb.1 can be traced: bernac was masc., bernaque, -ache fem., in Fr.]
1. A species of wild goose (Anas leucopsis) nearly allied to the Brent Goose, found in the arctic seas (where alone it breeds), and visiting the British coasts in winter.
This bird, of which the breeding-place was long unknown, was formerly believed to be produced out of the fruit of a tree growing by the sea-shore, or itself to grow upon the tree attached by its bill (whence also called Tree Goose), or to be produced out of a shell which grew upon this tree, or was engendered as a kind of ‘mushroom’ or spume from the corruption or rotting of timber in the water.
α. a. 1227. Neckam, in Promp. Parv., 32. De ave que vulgo dicitur bernekke.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. I. 335. Þere beeþ bernakes foules liche to wylde gees; kynde bryngeþ hem forþ wonderliche out of trees.
c. 1400. Maundev., xxvi. 264. Of the Bernakes…. In oure Contree weren Trees, that beren a Fruyt, that becomen Briddes fleeynge.
c. 1440. [see β].
β. c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 32. Barnakylle byrde [v.r. bernack, bernak], barnacus, barnita, barnites.
1480. Caxton, Trevisa’s Descr. Brit., 48. Ther ben bernacles, fowles lyke to wylde ghees, whiche growen wonderly vpon trees. Ibid. (1520), 2/2. Men of relygyon eet barnacles upon fastynge dayes bycause they ben not engendred with flesshe.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. vi. (1641), 58/2. So rotten planks of broken ships do change To Barnacles … ’Twas first a green tree, then a broken hull, Lately a Mushroon, now a flying Gull.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 63. There stand certaine trees vpon the shore of the Irish sea, bearing fruit like unto a gourd, which … doe fall into the water, and become birds called Bernacles.
1653. Walton, Angler, 189. The Barnacles and young Goslings bred by the Sun’s heat and the rotten planks of an old Ship, and hatched of trees.
1674. Ray, Water Fowl, 95. The Bernacle, Bernicla.
1678. Sir R. Murray, in Phil. Trans., XII. 926. Multitudes of little Shells; having within them little Birds perfectly shap’d, supposed to be Barnacles.
1694. Falle, Jersey, ii. 74. Bernacles … are only seen about the Sea, and in very cold Weather.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., III. 279. The Barnacle not … bred from a shell sticking to ships’ bottoms.
1864. [H. W. Wheelwright], Spring Lapl., 362. Both the brent goose and the bernicle (A. leucopsis, Bechst.) pass over Scandinavia to breed either in Spitzbergen or East Finland.
1870. Pall Mall Gaz., 12 Oct., 12/2. The barnacle is supposed by simple people to be developed out of the fishy parasite of the same name.
b. In this sepse now often Bernacle Goose, to distinguish it from sense 2.
1768. Pennant, Zool. (1812), II. 237. The Bernacle Goose.
1848. C. Johns, Week at Lizard, 333. Bernicle Goose.
1882. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, IX. 552. Bernacle Geese have been very abundant.
2. English name of the pedunculate genus of Cirripedes, which attach themselves to objects floating in the water, especially to the bottoms of ships, by a long fleshy foot-stalk. Sometimes used to include sessile Cirripedes: see ACORN-SHELL.
(This was the ‘shell-fish’ out of which the Barnacle Goose was supposed to be produced, the long feathery cirri protruded from the valves suggesting the notion of plumage. Giraldus Cambrensis had himself seen more than a thousand of them ‘conchylibus testis inclusæ,’ hanging from one piece of timber on the shore.)
a. 1581. Campion, Hist. Irel., iii. (1633), 10. Barnacles, thousands at once, are noted along the shoares to hang by the beakes about the edges of putrified timber … which in processe taking lively heate of the Sunne, become water-foules.
1598. Florio, Anitra … the birde that breedes of a barnikle hanging vpon old ships.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., 290. These Tortoises … had two great bunches of those they call Bernacle-shells sticking … to his back.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. ii. 655. As barnacles turn Soland geese In th’ islands of the Orcades.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Cravan, a barnacle, a small shell-fish … which fastens to a ship’s bottom in a long voyage.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., xiv. (1873), 389. Cuvier did not perceive that a barnacle was a crustacean.
3. fig. A companion or follower that sticks close, and will not be dismissed; a constant attendant.
1607. Dekker, Northw. Hoe, III. Wks. 1873, III. 39. Ile cashiere all my yong barnicles.
1866. Miss Braddon, Trail Serp., I. i. 4. Slopperton found him a species of barnacle rather difficult to shake off.
† b. Perhaps in this sense used as the cant term for a decoy swindler: see quots., and cf. BARNARD.
1591. Greene, Disc. Cozenage (1859), 23. Thus doth the Verser and the Setter feign a kind friendship to the Cony … As thus they sit tipling, coms the Barnackle and thrusts open the doore … steps backe again: and very mannerly saith I cry you mercy Gentlemen, I thoght a frend of mine had bin heere. [See the whole passage.]
1608. Dekker, Belman Lond., Wks. 1885, III. 131. He that … before counterfetted the dronken Bernard is now sober and called the Barnacle.
† 4. One who speaks through his nose. Obs. rare.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Gango, a barnacle, one that speaketh through the nose, Chenolopex. [Chenalopex in Pliny, a species of goose.]
