Also 6 bageard, 6–7 badgerd. [Only mod. Eng.: of doubtful origin. Prob. (as E. Müller suggests) from BADGE sb. + -ARD, in reference to the white mark borne like a badge on its forehead: cf. for the sense BAUSON and BALL sb.3, for the formation BALLARD.
Most etymologists have assumed the identity of this with the prec. word, citing the presumed analogy of the mod.F. name of the quadruped, blaireau, in 15th c. blereau, taken as a dim. of blaier, meaning ‘little corn-merchant or corn-hoarder,’ an appellation arising out of popular notions of the habits of the animal, ‘which, it is said, makes away with much buck-wheat’ (Littré). But this derivation seems to be erroneous. No OF. *blaērel, representing a L. *blādārellus, from blādārius, is found. And it seems certain that OF. blariau (12–13th c.), later bléreau, blaireau, in Flanders blairiau, blariau, in Normandy blierel, blérel, compared with OF. blarie, blaire ‘the bald-coot,’ mod.F. dial. (Flanders, Picardy) blarie, blairie, (Normandy) blérie, must be referred to MDu. and Flem. blaer ‘bald,’ MDu. blare, Flem. blaere, Du. blaar ‘a white spot on the forehead of an animal.’ Blaireau thus corresponds exactly to bauson, and its analogy strongly favors the derivation of badge-ard from badge.]
1. A plantigrade quadruped (Meles vulgaris), intermediate between the weasels and the bears, found in Europe and Middle Asia; it is a nocturnal, hybernating animal, feeding on small mammals, game, eggs, fruit, and roots, and digging for itself a burrow, which it defends fiercely against attack, biting and maiming dogs with its powerful jaws. Earlier names were brock, and bauson; also gray. The Indian and North American species differ but slightly from the European.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 71. A bauson or a badger.
1534. More, Comf. agst. Trib., II. Wks. 1183/2. Bageard.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas (1608), 514. As the selfe-swelling Badgerd … First at the entry of his barrow fights.
1720. Swift, Apollo to Dean, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 20. Grey as a badger.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. i. 298. A Badger is known by several Names, as a Gray, a Brock, a Boreson or Bauson; the young ones are called Pigs; the Male is called the Boar, and the Female the Sow.
1877. Coues, Fur Anim., i. 2. The cruel sport which Badgers have afforded from time immemorial. [See also 5.]
fig. 1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. viii. 80. Erasmus was a badger in his jeeres, where he did bite he would make his teeth meet.
b. erron. applied to the beaver and otter.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Bivaro, a badger or brocke, Fiber, castor.
1601. Chester, Love’s Mart., cxvii. The watrie Badger.
c. Cape- or Rock-badger: the daman (Hyrax Capensis). Honey-badger: the ratel (Ratellus mellivorus). Badger (in Australia): the wombat.
1824. Griffith, Cuvier, III. 429. Dutch Colonists … call the Cape Hyrax, Klip daasie, or the Rock Badger.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. III. ii. 122. The Daman of the Cape … commonly called Badger of the Rocks.
1870. Nicholson, Zool. (1880), 661. The Wombat, often called by the colonists the ‘badger.’
2. (in U.S.) Nickname of natives or inhabitants of Wisconsin.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, iv. 54. Our ‘Hoosiers,’ ‘Suckers,’ and ‘Badgers,’ of the American woods.
3. a. An artificial fly (for angling); b. a brush (for painting or shaving) made of badgers’ hair.
1787. Best, Angling, 107. The late Badger … Dubbed with the fur off a black badger’s skin.
4. Slang phr. To overdraw one’s badger (in humorous reference to badger-drawing; see 5): to overdraw one’s banking account.
1840. Hood, Kilmansegg 2173 (D.).
| For his cheques no longer drew the cash, | |
| Because, as his comrades explain’d in flash, | |
| ‘He had overdrawn his badger.’ |
5. Comb. Badger-baiting, -drawing, the cruel sport of setting dogs to draw out a badger from its (artificial) hole, e.g., a barrel; hence badger-baiter; badger-dog (= Ger. dachshund), a long-bodied short-legged dog used in drawing a badger from its earth; badger-fly (= BADGER 3 a); badger-legged a., having legs of unequal length, as the badger was vulgarly supposed to have; badger-like a. and adv., like or in the manner of a badger.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xiii. Go and see what is become of the *badger-baiters.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., III. vii. § 19. *Badger-baiting. In order to give the better effect to this diversion, a hole is dug in the ground for the retreat of the animal; and the dogs run at him singly in succession.
1864. Reader, No. 85. 200/1. The pug, the bulldog, and the *badger-dog.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist (1850), 155/2. Young lords went to see cockfighting and *badger-drawing.
1787. Best, Angling, 105. The *Badger Fly … is an excellent killer.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Æsop’s Fables Life, i. 1. His [Æsop’s] Body Crooked all over, Big-Belly’d, *Badger[printed Baker]-Legg’d.
1656. Artif. Handsom., 60. Poor Vulcanists, who balance the inequality of their heels, or *badger leggs, by the … help of the shoemaker.
1651. Cleveland, Poems, 34. Come keen Iambicks, with your Badgers feet, And *Badger-like, bite till your teeth do meet.
