Forms: 7–8 barraque, 7 barack, 8– barrack. [a. F. baraque, ad. It. baracca or Sp. barraca ‘a souldier’s tent, or a booth, or such like thing made of the sayle of a shippe, or such like stuffe’ (Minsheu, 1617). Of uncertain origin: Diez thinks from barra bar, comparing, for the form, trab-acca from trab-s beam. Others have tried to find an Arabic or Celtic source. Marsh has shown that the word occurs early in Sp. and Catalan.]
[1249. Ord., in Privilegia Valentiæ, in Marsh, Wedgwood, s.v., Concedimus vobis … habentibus barraquas sive patua aut loca determinata ad edificandum, etc.
a. 1276. Conq. Valencia, ibid., Barraques de tapits e vanoues.
1611. Escolano, Hist. Valencia, /271. Barracas y choças de pescadores.]
1. A temporary hut or cabin; e.g., for the use of soldiers during a siege, etc. Still in north. dial.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2107/2. The Houses ruined … are not yet rebuilt, so that greatest part of the Garison is still lodged in Barraques.
1706. Phillips, Barrack or Barraque, a Hut like a little Cottage for Soldiers to lodge in a Camp, when they have no tents.
1729. Swift, Grand Quest., Wks. 1755, IV. I. 103. To dispose of it to the best bidder, For a barrack or malt-house.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. lvi. 367. He lodged in a miserable hut or barrack.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm. (1858), 192. These barracks or bothies are almost always of the most miserable description.
b. ‘A straw-thatched roof supported by four posts, capable of being raised or lowered at pleasure, under which hay is kept.’ Bartlett, Dict. Amer., 1848.
2. A set of buildings erected or used as a place of lodgement or residence for troops.
a. usually in pl. (collective), sometimes improperly treated as a sing.
1697. Lond. Gaz., No. 3314/3. An Estimate of the Charge of Building a Cittadel at Limericke; and of Baracks to be made for the Soldiers.
1760. Wesley, in Jrnl., 21 July (1827), III. 11. I preached near the barracks.
1879. Jenkinson, Guide I. Wight, 43. Barracks were also erected, and the place was considered of military importance.
1884. Harper’s Mag., Nov., 813/1. The college building had been seized for a barracks.
b. sometimes in sing.
1698. Par. Reg. Drypool, Hull, 21 Dec. [Baptism of] Jane, Daughter of Hugh Scot, Gentleman, Officer in the Barwick. Ibid. (1699), 2 Nov. Officer at the Berwick.
1774. T. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, lxii. (1840), III. 404. He … lived to see his cathedral converted into a barrack.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil (1853), 27. His own idea of a profession being limited to a barrack in a London park.
c. transf.
1883. Earl Cairns, in Chr. Commw., 834/3. The children were not massed together in great barracks, but were broken up into small detachments.
3. attrib., as in barrack-life, -room, -yard; barrack-master, an officer who superintends soldiers’ barracks; whence barrack-master general, an appointment abolished in 1806.
1728–9. Swift, Lett., ccccxx. (1766), III. 326–7 (R.). A young lady of good fortune was courted by an Irishman, who pretended to be barrack-master-general of Ireland.
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 233. Barrack-Masters being expressly enjoined … to confine the issues of Bedding, Furniture, Utensils, and Stores to such only as, etc. Ibid., 236. The Officer of the Day is to visit the Barrack-Rooms to see that they are properly cleaned.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm. (1858), 186. Somewhat dismayed by this specimen of barrack-life.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea, II. 436. Here on the bloody slope of Alma no less than in the barrack-yard at home.
