Barney, subs. (popular).—1. A word which varies in sense according to the predelictions of the person using it. Generally speaking it means a jollification; 'lark'; pleasurable outing; picnic. The 'Arries and roughs of London, however, always associate it with a certain amount of rowdyism. Its derivation is unknown, although Barrère gives a long dissertation concerning its origin in the Yiddish. As, however, this is founded mainly upon a misreading of a quotation from Punch, it is somewhat beside the mark.
2. Humbug; cheating; a hoax; something pre-arranged—not genuine. In sporting circles it signifies an unfair race of any kind.
1865. B. Brierley, Irkdale, II., 19. I won thee i' fair powell one toss an' no barney.
1882. Evening News, 2 Sept., p. 1, col. 6. Blackguardly barneys called boxing competitions. [m.]
Murray gives this last in illustration of the secondary sense which he applies to the word, viz., a prize-fight. Barney, it is true, does signify a prize-fight, but it means more than that. A fair contest would not be so named; there must be an element of chicanery in the matter. Besides which, barney is applied to unfair sporting competitions of any kind. A comparison of the different quotations given under this heading will clearly prove that point.
1884. Referee, April 13, p. 7, col. 4. Who would believe that Mr. Gladstone shammed being ill, and that Sir Andrew Clark issued false bulletins, and that the whole thing was a barney from beginning to end.
1885. Bell's Life, Jan. 3, p. 3, col. 4. Few genuine matches have taken place this season on the Transatlantic waters, though exhibitions and barney contests have been plentiful.
3. (American.)—At Harvard College, about the year 1810, this word was used to designate a bad recitation. To barney was to recite badly.—Hall's College Words and Customs.
Barn-Mouse. To be bitten by a barn-mouse, phr. (old).—To be tipsy; 'screwed.' The Lexicon Balatronicum says 'it is probably an allusion to barley,' presumably as the source of malt liquor. Cf., 'To have on' Or 'wear a barley-cap,' to be tipsy; also barley-cap = a tippler.
Barn-stormer, subs. (theatrical).—A
deprecatory epithet applied
to strolling players.
1884. Pall Mall Gazette, 6 June, p. 5, col. 1. If this be barn-storming, Betterton and Garrick were barn-stormers.
1886. Graphic, 10 April, p. 399. Travelling players who acted short and highly tragic pieces to audiences of clodpoles in any barn or shed they could get, used to be known as barn-stormers, and a ranting, noisy style of acting and speaking is still called 'barn-storming.'
1887. Referee, 21 August, p. 3, col. 1. Mr. Edward Terry has again been elected at the head of the poll as trustee of the charities of Barnes. He is not the first clever actor who has been known as a Barnes-stormer.
The French term for one of such a troupe is cabotin.
Barnumese, subs. (American).—Barnum,
the proprietor of 'the
greatest show upon earth,' has
at any rate one claim to immortal
fame in having, like
Boycot, Burke, and Balfour,
added a new word to the
English tongue. The 'high
falutin,' bombastic style of the
