Barbe (Ste.)

The powder-room in a French ship; so called from St. Barbara, the patron saint of artillery. (See Barbary.)

A barbe de fou apprend-on à raire (French). An apprentice is taught to shave on the chin of a fool.

Tel a fait sa barbe, qui nʹest pas beau fils (French). You may waste half the day on making your toilet, and yet not come forth an Adonis. You cannot make a silk purse of a sow’s ear. Not every block will make a Mercury.

“Heap lying curls a million on your head;

On socks, a cubit high, plant your proud tread,

Youʹre just what you are—that’s all about it.”

Goethe: Faust (Dr. Anster), p. 163.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Barbe (Ste.)

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