Chapter Barrol Fever to Bas Bleu of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Barrol Fever to Bas Bleu

Barrel Fever Intoxication or illness from intemperance in drink.

Barrell's Blues The 4th Foot; so called from the colour of their facings, and William Barrell, colonel of the regiment (1734--1739). Now called "The King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment)." They were called "Lions" from their badge, The Lion of England.

Barrette Parler à la barrette (French). To give one a thump o' the head. The word barrette means the cap worn by the lower orders.

"Et moi, je pourrais bien parler à ta barrette." Molière: L'Avare.

It is also used to signify the ordinary birretta of ecclesiastics and (probably) of French lawyers. Il à reçu le chapeau or la barrette. He has been made a cardinal.

"Le pape lui envoyait la barrette, mais elle ne servit qu'à le faire mourir cardinal." - Voltaire: Siècle de Louis XIV, chap. xxxix.

Barricade (3 syl.) To block up. The term rose in France in 1588, when Henri de Guise returned to Paris in defiance of the king's order. The king sent for his Swiss Guards, and the Parisians tore up the pavement, threw chains across the streets, and piled up barrels filled with earth and stones, behind which they shot down the Swiss as they passed through the streets. The French for barrel is barrique, and to barricade is to stop up the streets with these barrels.

The day of the Barricades:

(1) May 12th, 1588, when the people forced Henri III to flee from Paris.

(2) August 5th, 1648, the beginning of the Fronde War.

(3) July 27th, 1830, the first day of le grand semain which drove Charles X, from the throne.

(4) February 24th, 1848, which drove Louis Philippe to abdicate and flee to England.

(5) June 23rd, 1848, when Affre, Archbishop of Paris, was shot in his attempt to quell the insurrection.

(6) December 2nd, 1851, the day of the coup d'état, when Louis Napoleon made his appeal to the people for reelection to the Presidency for ten years.

Barrier Treaty November 5th, 1715, by which the Dutch reserved the right of holding garrisons in certain fortresses of the Spanish Netherlands.

Barrikin Jargon, words not understood. (Old French, baracan, from the Breton, bara gwyn, "white bread," taken as a type of barbarous words; modern French, baragouin, gibberish.)

Barring-out A practice of barring the master out of the schoolroom in order to dictate terms to him. It was once common, but is now numbered with past customs. Miss Edgeworth has a tale so called.

Barrister One admitted to plead at the bar; one who has been "called to the bar." The bar is the rail which divides the counsel from the audience, or the place thus enclosed. Tantamount to the rood-screen of a church, which separates the chancel from the rest of the building. Both these are relics of the ancient notion that the laity are an inferior order to the privileged class.

A silk gown or bencher pleads within the bar, a stuff gown or outer barrister pleads without the bar.

Outer or Utter Barrister. This phrase alludes to an ancient custom observed in courts of law, when certain barristers were allowed to plead; but not being benchers (king's counsel or sergeants-at-law) they took their seats "at the end of the forms called the bar." The Utter Barrister comes next to a bencher, and all barristers inferior to the Utter Barristers are termed. "Inner Barristers."