From Middle English barnakille, from earlier bernake, bernekke, from Old Northern French bernaque ("barnacle") (compare French barnache), from Medieval Latin barneca ("limpet"), from Gaulish (compare Welsh brennig, Irish báirneac), from Proto-Celtic *barinākos, from *barinā (compare Old Irish barenn ("boulder")), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷr̥H- ("hill, mountain") + Proto-Celtic *-ākos, from Proto-Indo-European *-kos, *-ḱos; for sense development, compare Ancient Greek λέπας ("rock") which gave λεπάς.
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