prisoners' ˈbars, ˈbase
Forms: α. 7– prison-bars (8 bar); β. prison-base (7 prison bace, 8 bass); γ. 9 prisoner's, -ers' bars; δ. 9 prisoner's, -ers' base.
[See prisoner2 and bar n.1 17, base n.2 The earlier forms were prison-bars and prison-base, the former app. the original: cf. the Fr. name of the game les barres; also the Fr. and earlier Eng. pronunciation of base (bɑːs, bɑːz).
1331–2 Rolls of Parlt. II. 65/1 Qe nul enfaunt ne autres jue en ul lieu du Paleys de Westmonstre, durant le Parlement..a bares ne a autres jues. 1530 Palsgr. 196/1 Bace playe, jev aux barres.]
A game played in a variety of ways, chiefly by boys; the players are divided into two parties, who occupy distinct demarcations, ‘bases’, ‘homes’, or ‘dens’, the aim of each side being to make prisoner by touching any player of the opposite side who runs out from his enclosure.
| α 1611 Cotgr., Barres, the play at Bace; or, Prison Bars. 1706 Farquhar Recruiting Officer ii. i, Our Army did nothing but play at Prison Bars, and hide and seek with the Enemy. 1755–73 Johnson, Prisonbase, a kind of rural play, commonly called prisonbars. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 624 Whether cricket or prison-bar, shuttle-cock or trap-ball be the better amusement? a 1795 [see bar n.1 17]. 1883 Burne Shropsh. Folk-lore 524 Men-servants, in the last century, were wont to ask a day's holiday to join or witness a game of prison-bars, arranged beforehand as a cricket-match might be. |
| β 1598 Drayton Heroic. Ep. xxi. 200 Where light-foot Fayries sport at Prison-Base. 1630 ― Muses Elizium i. 27 Whilst the Nimphes..Disposed were to play At Barly⁓breake and Prison-base. 1707 E. Chamberlayne Pres. St. Eng. i. v. (ed. 22) 51 They will go in the Evening to Football,..Cricket, Prison-base, Wrestling. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 342 Jumping, hopping, foot races, and prison bass. |
| γ 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. ii. ii. §12 There is a rustic game called Base or Bars..and in some places Prisoners' Bars. 1864 E. Capern Devon Provinc., Prisoner's-Bars or bonds, a very ancient game. 1872 Punch 6 Apr. 141/2 Prisoner's-bars. 1901 Pall Mall Mag. Sept. 38 He was never too busy to..be umpire at ‘tig’ or prisoners' bars. |
| δ 1855 Thackeray Newcomes ii, Playing at cricket, hockey, prisoner's base, and football, according to the season. 1861 Fun 12 Oct. 42 An unextinguishable affection for ‘prisoners' base’. 1876 Grant Burgh Sch. Scotl. ii. v. 180 A game less known, though a most admirable one, is..‘prisoner's base’. 1880 Prisoners' base [see base n.2]. |