Barrette
.Parler à la barrette (French). To give one a thump oʹ the head. The word barrette means the cap worn by the lower orders.
“Et moi, je pourrais bien parler à ta barrette.”
It is also used to signify the ordinary birretta of ecclesiastics and (probably) of French lawyers. Il à reçu le chapeau or la barrette. He has been made a cardinal.
“Le pape lui envoyait la barrette, mais elle ne servit quʹ à le faire mourir cardinal.”—Voltaire: Siècle de Louis XIV., chap. xxxix.
