Forms: 4– barge, 4–7 berge, (7 barg). [a. OF. barge (= Pr. barga, c. 1180, med.L. barga), of which the L. type might be either barga or *bārica. Diez favors the latter, taking it as a possible derivative of L. bāris, Gr. βᾶρις, a kind of boat used on the Nile, an Egyptian word (Coptic barí a little pleasure-boat); but there is no evidence that this word was ever used in the West. As to barga see BARK sb.2
If barge was, as seems certain, the same as barca, BARK sb.2, it was originally a ship’s boat, used as a lighter, etc.; in OF., 13th c., we still find ‘la barge de la nef’ (Littré): cf. senses 2–4. But, as with barca, the name was extended to a boat or small ship with sails; and this was the first use in English: see sense 1. After the introduction (by Caxton) of barque, barke from 15th c. Fr., that word took the place of barge, which, after 1600, is found in the sense of ‘ship’ only in translators or historians. The modern senses revert more nearly to that of the original barca.]
† 1. A small sea-going vessel with sails: used specifically for one next in size above the BALINGER, and generally as = Ship, vessel (in which use it is now superseded by BARK.) Obs. (except when historians reproduce it in the specific sense.)
a. 1300. Cursor M., 24840. Þat ilke waw til oþir it weft, And bremli to þa bargis beft.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 852. Mid heore atire, schipes and barge They gan mony for to charge.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 410. His barge ycleped was the Maudelayne.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, XXX. 12406. Relikes of troy, Þat he [Antenor] broght in his barge to the bare yle.
a. 1422. Hen. V., in Ellis, Orig. Lett., III. 31, I. 72. Owr grete shippes, carrakes, barges, and balyngers.
c. 1440. Lonelich, Grail, xxxv. 112. Alle the sees … that schepis or barges inne mown go.
1568. Ld. Semple, Fleming Bark. I have a little Fleming Berge.
1652. Needham, trans. Selden’s Mare Cl., 301. Two Ships, two Barges and two Ballingers armed and fitted for war.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. 128 (transl. Rot. Parl. an. 1442). Each ship attended by a barge of eighty men, and a balynger of forty; also four ‘spynes’ of twenty-five men.
† b. fig. (cf. bark, ship.) Obs.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 38. But yf reason be regent and ruler of your barge.
c. 1550. New Notbroune Mayd, 166, in Hazl., E. P. P., III. 8. In Sathans barge, Emparynge his good name.
a. 1577. Gascoigne, Wks. (1587), 181. I seemed to swim in goodlucks barge.
1663. Sir G. Mackenzie, Relig. Stoic, xx. (1685), 160. To stay still in the barge of the Church.
2. A flat-bottomed freight-boat, chiefly for canal- and river-navigation, either with or without sails: in the latter case also called a lighter; in the former, as in the Thames barges, generally dandy-rigged, having one important mast.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., VII. (1520), 91 b/1. Bargees and botes and great plankes.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 388. A brydge made of bargis [and] plankys to haue passed a water.
1570. Levins, Manip., /31. Barge, cimba, remulcus.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., A ij. The Barge by graue Amocles was compos’d.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 324. Floats, like flat-bottomed barges.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Barge, is also the name of a flat-bottomed vessel of burthen, for lading and discharging ships.
1842. Tennyson, Lady of Shalott, iii. By the margin, willow-veil’d, Slide the heavy barges trail’d.
1846. Grote, Greece (1862), II. xx. 504. The merchandise was put into barges.
† 3. vaguely, A rowing boat; esp. a ferry-boat. (Used to render L. linter.) Obs.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, I. xxv. Go ye into yonder barge, and row your self unto the swerd.
1567. Drant, Horace’ Epist., I. xviii. F v. The Oste deuydes their bargies [lintres].
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 74. Vpon the riuer Alpheus, there is passage by water in barges.
4. spec. The second boat of a man of war; a long narrow boat, generally with not less than ten oars, for the use of the chief officers.
1530. Palsgr., 460/1. I dare borde hym with my rowe barge.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Apol., 5. I had taken my Barge and gone a shoare.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), F iv. A barge properly never rows less than ten [oars].
1773. Brownrigg, in Phil. Trans., LXIV. 457. We went from the Centaur with the long-boat and barge.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 9. Barges are … kept in order to carry distinguished persons when embarking or disembarking.
1863. Cornh. Mag., Feb. Life Man-of-War, 182. Command of one of the larger boats, i.e. launch, barge, or pinnace.
5. A large vessel propelled by oars (or towed), generally much ornamented, and used on state occasions; an ornamental house-boat.
(The College ‘Barges’ at Oxford are ornamental house-boats, now permanently moored, and used as dressing- and sitting-rooms for university men on the river.)
1586. Cogan, Haven Health, i. (1612), 3. Sitting in a boate or barge which is rowed.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. ii. 196. The Barge she sat in, like a burnisht Throne, Burnt on the water.
1682. Lond. Gaz., No. 1724/4. His Majesty passed by here in his barge.
1722. Lond. Gaz., No. 6107/3. The … Lord Mayor … proceeded in the City Barge.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 303. Who knew no more of winds and waves than could be learned in a gilded barge between Whitehall Stairs and Hampton Court.
1882. Murray, Berks, etc. 196. The walk by the Isis is bordered by the College barges.
6. (in U.S.) ‘A double-decked passenger and freight vessel, without sails or power, and towed by a steamboat.’ Webster.
7. Comb., chiefly attrib., as barge-builder, -cushion, -house, -walk, -woman; and the adjs. barge-like, -laden. See also BARGEMAN, -MASTER.
1685. Lond. Gaz., No. 2023/4. They lie now in a Barge-House … at Lambeth.
1773. Gentl. Mag., XLIII. 144. Who loll’d on barge-cushions at ease.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), III. xxviii. 322. His bargelike vessels thronged … the mouth of the inlet.
1880. Blackmore, Mary Anerley, II. vii. 121. A jetty, a quay, and a barge-walk.
1864. Daily Tel., 6 Aug., 2/3. A barge woman … seized the prisoner by the collar, and said, ‘He has assaulted me; I will take him and lock him up.’
