bard

name

1. A surname originating as an occupation.
2. William Shakespeare.

   “We have previously traced Shakespeare from his Birth-place to the Grammar School, and we shall now glance at his career as a lover, and in so doing propose a pleasant walk of a short mile to Shottery, a rural hamlet in the parish of Stratford, where Anne Hathaway resided, to whom the Bard became affianced at a very early period in his life.”

   “It evidently needs no effort on the part of Mr. Booth to put himself en rapport with the ideal of the great Bard.”

noun

Etymology: From French barde. English since the late 15th century.

1. A piece of defensive (or, sometimes, ornamental) armor for a horse's neck, breast, and flanks; a barb. (Often in the plural.)
2. Defensive armor formerly worn by a man at arms.
3. A thin slice of fat bacon used to cover any meat or game.
4. The exterior covering of the trunk and branches of a tree; the rind.
5. Specifically, Peruvian bark.

verb

Etymology: From French barde. English since the late 15th century.

1. To cover a horse in defensive armor.

   “The defensive armor with which the horses of the ancient knights or men at arms were covered, or, to use the language of the time, barded, consisted of the following pieces made either of metal or jacked leather, the Chamfron, Chamfrein or Shaffron, the Criniere or Main Facre, the Poitrenal, Poitral or Breast Plate, and the Croupiere or Buttock Piece.”

2. To cover (meat or game) with a thin slice of fat bacon.