The bard

On this occasion not the bard, the bard of Southbank & Stratford, rather a new bit of vernacular from Simenon, from 'Le Port des Brumes'. And the first post of this sort since the end of August at reference 1.

The bit of vernacular in question is 'Lucas comprit que ça allait barder', from the very first sentence of chapter VII, which slowed me down for a bit, although my guess, on this occasion at least, turned out to be right.

Littré offered various meanings for 'bard'. First the Celtic minstrel types. Second a litter, the sort of thing used to carry an important invalid or a lady of quality. Third a pack saddle, usually for a mule or a donkey but also for a horse. Fourth, the assembly of overlapping strips of steel used to protect the front of a war horse. By association, the overlapping strips of streaky bacon used to protect the front of a roasting turkey. Generalising, to baste a turkey or chicken, this being the sense in which I usually use the word, perhaps brought to me from French-speaking Montreal by my mother.

So not at all clear how we get to the Simenon sense of 'now we are really going to get cracking' - which is, however, confirmed by the illustration.

OED offers much the same range of meanings for bard - less the litter - as Littré. But still no clue as to how we get from there to getting cracking.

So failing with barding, I turn my attention to cracking, the various forms of which occupies several columns of the OED. Starting off with the sense of a sharp, sudden noise and moving on into various kinds of speech and conversation, particularly speech of a boastful nature. So, unlike with bard, one can at least vaguely see how the meaning might have drifted to the sense in which we now use the phrase 'get cracking'. Plus, there might be an association to the nearly 'crackling'.

Maybe bard will come to me.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/margins.html.