barlafumble

English

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Alternative forms

Etymology

Uncertain. For the first element, compare barley, which bears a similar meaning as an interjection. The second element may be from French parlez, foi mêlez (“let us have a truce and blend our faith”).^[1] First attested in 1568.

Interjection

barlafumble (Scotland, obsolete)

A cry for peace or truce in children's games.
Synonyms: fainites, pax
- c. 1500, Christis Kirk on the Green:
  Quhile he cryed barlafummil, I am slane.
- 1868, James Maidment, A Book of Scotish Pasquils. 1568-1715, page 140:
  To fight, lest ye, when canons rumble, / With shame for fear, cry barlafumble.
- 1913 [c. 1648], William Drummond, The Poetical Works of William Drummon of Hawthornden, volume 2, Polemo-Middinia inter Vitarvam et Nebernam, page 164:
  Greittans, lookansque grivatè, Barlafumle clamat […]
A fall; the act of accidentally losing one's balance.
- 1687, Samuel Colvil, Mock Poem or Whiggs supplication, Jo. Reid for Alexander Ogston:
  When Coach-men drinks & Horses stumble, / It's hard to miss a Barla-fumble.

References

^ John Jamieson (2018) [1808] An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language‎^[1], volume 1, Outlook Verlag, →ISBN, page 75

“barla-fumble”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
John Stephen Farmer, William Ernest Henley (1909) Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present, page 141

[1] John Jamieson (2018) [1808] An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language‎^[1], volume 1, Outlook Verlag, →ISBN, page 75

[1]