Chapter Banneret to Barbary of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Baptes (2 syl.). Priests of the goddess Cotytto, whose midnight orgies were so obscene that they disgusted even Cotytto, the goddess of obscenity. They received their name from the Greek verb bapto, to wash, because they bathed themselves in the most effeminate manner. (Juvenal, ii. 91.)

Baptist John the Baptist. His symbol is a sword, the instrument by which he was beheaded.

Bar The whole body of barristers; as bench means the whole body of bishops.

"A dinner was given to the English Bar." - The Times.

Bar excepting. In racing phrase a man will bet "Two to one, bar one," that is, two to one against any horse in the field with one exception. The word means "barring out" one, shutting out, or debarring one.

Bar At the bar. As the prisoner at the bar, the prisoner in the dock before the judge.

Trial at bar, i.e. by the full court of judges. The bar means the place set apart for the business of the court.

To be called to the bar. To be admitted a barrister. The bar is the partition separating the seats of the benchers from the rest of the hall. Students having attained a certain status used to be called from the body of the hall within the bar, to take part in the proceedings of the court. To disbar is to discard from the bar. Now, "to be called within the bar" means to be appointed king's (or queen's) counsel; and to disbar means to expel a barrister from his profession.

Bar in heraldry. An honourable ordinary, consisting of two parallel lines drawn across the shield and containing a fifth part of the field.

"A barre ... is drawne overthwart the escochon ... it containeth the fifth part of the Field." - Gwillim: Heraldry.

A Bar sinister in an heraldic shield means one drawn the reverse way; that is, not from left to right, but from right to left. Popularly but erroneously supposed to indicate bastardy.

Bar (Trial at) The examination of a difficult cause before the four judges in the superior courts.

Barabas The hero of Marlow's tragedy, The Jew of Malta.

"A mere monster, brought in with a large painted nose ... He kills in sports, poisons whole nunneries, invents infernal machines. ... " - C. Lamb.

Barataria Sancho Panza's island-city, over which he was appointed governor. The table was presided over by Doctor Pedro Rezio de Aguero, who caused every dish set upon the board to be removed without being tasted - some because they heated the blood, and others because they chilled it; some for one ill effect, and some for another; so that Sancho was allowed to eat nothing. The word is from barato (cheap).

"The meat was put on the table, and whisked away, like Sancho's inauguration feast at Barataria." - Thackeray.

Barathron A deep ditch behind the Acropolis of Athens into which malefactors were thrown: somewhat in the same way as criminals at Rome were cast from the "Tarpeian Rock."

Barb An arrow. The feathers under the beak of a hawk were called barb feathers (beard feathers). The point of an arrow has two iron "feathers," which stick out so as to hinder the extraction of the arrow. (Latin, barba, a beard.)

N.B. - The barb is not the feather on the upper part of the shaft, but the hooked iron point or head.

Barb A Barbary steed, noted for docility, speed, endurance, and spirit. (See Barbed Steeds.)

Barbari Quod non fecerunt Barbari, fecerunt Barberini (What the barbarians left standing, Barberini contrived to destroy). Pope Barberini robbed the roof of the Pantheon to build the Baldacchino, or canopy of St. Peter's. It is made entirely of bronze, and weighs ninety tons.