Barnaby

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Noun

Barnaby (uncountable)

1. (archaic) A lively and fast-paced dance; (by extension) any quick and uneven movement.
   • 1640-1687, Charles Cotton, in his burlesque of Virgil:

     Bounce cry the port-holes, out they fly
     And make the world dance Barnaby.

Proper noun

1. A male given name, from the medieval vernacular form of Barnabas.
   • 1595 Edmund Spenser, Epithalamium

     This day the sun is in his chiefest height

     With Barnaby the Bright.

   • 1848 John O'Donovan, The Annals of the Four Masters, The Dublin University Magazine, 1848, Vol.31, page 577

     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.

   • 1962 Edward Eager, Seven-Day Magic, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999, ISBN 0152020780, page 8

     Barnaby liked his own name. He was proud of its differentness and would never answer to "Barney", or any other nickname.

   • 2000 Alexei Sayle, Barcelona Plates

     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.'

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