Barnaby
nounproper nounattested in dialogue
A male given name from Hebrew, from the medieval vernacular form of Barnabas.
noun
- 1
archaicA lively and fast-paced dance; (by extension) any quick and uneven movement.
Bounce cry the port-holes, out they fly And make the world dance Barnaby.
It was a regular Barnaby dance; I'd never seen anyone move so quickly. Before the culprit bolted out the door into the night,
"Owell gave me this. Said to get it to you in a Barnaby dance. 'Ere it is." His tongue scraped across his lower lip as he stared at Charity.
We were now doing a strange sort of Barnaby dance: shuffling to and fro as I blocked his attempts to set off in pursuit.
Etymology
* English surname of Aramaic origin, from בַּר נְבִיָּא (bar nəḇiyyā, literally “prophet’s son”). * Also as an English surname, from Old English Beornwald, from beorn (“young warrior”) + wealdan (“rule”) + Old Norse býr (“farmstead”).
proper noun
- 1
A male given name from Hebrew, from the medieval vernacular form of Barnabas.
This day the sun is in his chiefest height With Barnaby the Bright.
The name Barnaby may strike the reader as out of place in so Celtic a pedigree; but this was an anglicisation of the true name, Brian Oge - - - Now, times are altered, and his anglicised descendants will probably begin to use Brian as a family name again, rejecting Barnaby as less respectable.
Barnaby liked his own name. He was proud of its differentness and would never answer to "Barney", or any other nickname.
But instead of pressing the button that would have taped the play she pressed the button that activated the built-in microphone and recorded a hundred and twenty minutes of hers and Barnaby's home life, which aurally consisted of 'Want a cup of tea?' 'No thanks.'
Barnaby · A male given name from Hebrew, from the medieval vernacular form of Barnabas.
Barnes · A surname.Barnett · An English surname.barney · A noisy argument.