▪ I. bacon, n.
(ˈbeɪkən)
Forms: 4 bacoun, 4–5 bakoun, 5 bacun, 5–6 bakon, 6 baken, 5– bacon.
[a. OF. bacon, -un (= Pr. bacon, med.L. bacōn-em), a. OHG, bahho, bacho, MHG. bache, backe, buttock, ham, side of bacon:—OTeut. *bakon-, cogn. w. *bako-z, back n.1; cf. ODu. baken bacon.]
1. The back and sides of the pig, ‘cured’ by salting, drying, etc. Formerly also the fresh flesh now called pork.
| c 1330 Poem temp. Edw. II, 388 in Pol. Songs 341 For beof ne for bakoun..Unnethe wolde eny do a char. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 194 As a bondman of his bacoun his berde was bidraueled. c 1386 Chaucer Wife's Prol. 217 The bacoun was nought fet for hem..That som men fecche in Essex at Donmowe. c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714) 73 In Fraunce, the People salten but litill meate, except their Bacon. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §121 Her [a sow's] body..wyll be as good baken as a hogge. 1620 Venner Via Recta iii. 53 Bacon is not good for them that haue weake stomacks. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. II. xxxi. 181 A regular allowance of bacon was distributed to the poorer citizens. |
† 2. The carcase of a pig;
rarely a live pig.
Obs.| c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 2696 Wyþ grys, & gees, & capouns..Wiþ motoun, & bef & bakouns. 1549–52 in Strype Cranmer App. xlix. 137 Ye are like for to be taken, And quartered like a baken. 1603 Kyd Span. Trag. (T.) A young bacon, Or a fine little smooth horse-colt. 1768 Pennant Zool. I. 17 The carcases of..80 beeves, 600 bacons, and 600 muttons. |
3. transf. The blubber of a whale. ?
Obs.| 1712 Phil. Trans. XXVII. 446 The Fat of a Whale, which we call Bacon, and out of which we boil the Train-Oyl. |
† 4. A rustic, a clown, a ‘chaw-bacon.’
Obs. (Referring, like many of the compounds, to the fact of swine's flesh being the meat chiefly consumed by the rural population of England.)
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. ii. 93 On Bacons, on, what ye knaues? Yong men must liue. |
5. Phrases:
a. to save one's bacon: to escape injury to one's body, to keep oneself from harm.
to bring home the bacon: see
bring v. 1 d.
| 1654 T. Ireland Momus Elenticus 5 Some fellowes there were..To save their bacon penn'd many a smooth song. 1677 W. Hughes Man of Sin ii. iv. 75 Farewel Transubstantiation else! but 'tis a silly shift to save their Bacon. 1691 Weesils i. 5 No, they'l conclude I do't to save my Bacon. 1693 in Catal. (fictitious) Bks. in Harl. Misc. (1745) V. 269/2 In dubiis tutior pars: Or, the broad Way to save a Man's Bacon, and damn his Soul. 1812 Combe (Dr. Syntax) Pictur. vi. 22 But as he ran to save his bacon, By hat and wig he was forsaken. 1931 Belloc Cranmer viii. 149 Cranmer had just saved his bacon. It had been a very close thing. |
b. to sell one's bacon,
i.e. one's flesh or body.
| 1825 Carlyle Schiller iii. (1845) 163 To the Kaiser, therefore, I sold my bacon, And by him good charge of the whole is taken. |
6. Comb. and
attrib., as
bacon-curer,
bacon-factor,
bacon-merchant;
bacon-flitch,
bacon-ham,
bacon-pot,
bacon-rack,
bacon-rind;
bacon beetle, the larder-beetle (see
larder 3);
bacon-brains, a clownish blockhead;
bacon-face(d, having a fat sleek face;
bacon-farced a., stuffed with bacon;
bacon-fed a., fed on bacon, rustic, clownish;
bacon-hog,
-pig, one specially fattened for making bacon;
† bacon-man, a curer of, or dealer in, bacon;
† bacon-picker, opprobrious name for a glutton;
† bacon-slicer, a rustic.
| 1832 W. D. Williamson Hist. Maine I. 171 Dermestes Lardarius, *Bacon Beetle. 1855 Poultry Chron. III. 404/2 The bacon beetle..is a common insect in houses in April, May, and June. 1959 E. F. Linssen Beetles Brit. Isles i. 267 The infamous Bacon Beetle..occurring in England and Ireland. Besides its association with bacon, it also occurs in hides and dead animal matter. |
| a 1634 Randolph Answ. B. Jonson Poems (1668) 56 Their *bacon-brains have such a tast, As more delights in mast. |
| 1869 Trans. Ill. State Agric. Soc. 1867–9 VII. 432 Hogs for *bacon-curers and city consumption. |
| 1684 Otway Atheist 1 A broad shining, pufft, *Bacon-face, like a Cherubim. |
| 1731 Pol. Ballads (1860) II. 223 He opulent grew, As *bacon-face Jew. |
| c 1600 Day Begg. Bednell Gr. (1881) 37 I'de hang this *Bacon-fac'd slave ore⁓thwart his shanks. |
| 1646 G. Daniel Poems Wks. 1878 I. 45 A Pheasant, *bacon-farc'd. |
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. ii. 89 *Bacon-fed Knaues..downe with them. |
| 1462 Test. Ebor. (1855) II. 261 *Bakon-fliks, beffe-flicks. |
| 1796 Stedman Surinam II. xviii. 57 Provided with a *bacon ham, hung-beef, fowls, etc. |
| 1709 Kennett Erasm. Moriæ Enc. 17 (D.) As lusty as so many *bacon-hogs or sucking calves. 1869 Trans. Ill. State Agric. Soc. 1867–9 VII. 432 The weather became much warmer, thus lessening the demand for bacon hogs. 1884 Bacon hog [see porker 1]. |
| 1707 Lond. Gaz. No. 4349/4 Whitfeild Miller, late of Oxford, *Bacon-man. |
| 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. Prol., A certaine gulligut Fryer and true *bacon-picker. |
| 1833 Marryat P. Simple (1863) 195 His *bacon pigs, his porkers, his breeding sows. |
| 1789 G. White Selborne (1851) 209 She saves the scummings of her *bacon-pot [to make rush-lights]. |
| 1826 Miss Mitford Village ii. (1863) 446 The fully stored *bacon-rack. |
| 1606 Wily Beguiled in Hazl. Dodsl. IX. 244 Whose eyes do shine, Like *bacon-rine. 1867 Francis Bk. Angling 28 The use of the gentle or bacon rind. 1949 E. Pound Pisan Cantos lxxix. 74 The bacond-rind banner alias the Washington arms floats over against Ugolino. |
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong., Coënne de lard, a *Bacon skin. |
| 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. xv, Account me a very clounch, and *bacon-slicer of Brene. |
Add:
[6.] bacon sandwich (also
bacon sarnie).
| 1931 ‘G. Orwell’ Coll. Ess. (1968) I. 66 We started off for work, with *bacon sandwiches and a drum of cold tea. 1986 J. Milne Dead Birds xv. 126 I've made bacon sandwiches for all of us. 1986 Daily Express 21 Aug. 25 You don't have to survive on *bacon sarnies and beans. |
▪ II. bacon v. (
Cath. Angl.), ? for
baton,
batten.
▪ III. ˈbacon, v. Chiefly
U.S. [f. bacon n.] trans. To convert into bacon.
| 1821 I. Thomas Diary (1909) II. 76 Sent Legs of Pork to be baconed. 1890 Congress. Rec. Aug. 8887/1 We consumed or sold our own pork, and we baconed it ourselves. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 23 Feb. 101/1 Baconing the progeny of 40–50 Large White sows. |