Definition of BACON

bacon

Meanings

Plural: bacons

Noun

  • back and sides of a hog salted and dried or smoked; usually sliced thin and fried
  • English scientist and Franciscan monk who stressed the importance of experimentation; first showed that air is required for combustion and first used lenses to correct vision (1220-1292)
  • English statesman and philosopher; precursor of British empiricism; advocated inductive reasoning (1561-1626)
  • Cured meat from the sides, belly, or back of a pig.
  • Thin slices of the above in long strips.
  • The police or spies.
  • Road rash.
  • A saucisse.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English bacoun (“meat from the back and sides of a pig”), from Anglo-Norman bacon, bacun (“ham, flitch, strip of lard”), from Old Low Frankish *bakō (“ham, flitch”), from Proto-Germanic *bakô, *bakkô (“back”), an extension of *baką, whence English back, which see for more. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“back, buttocks; to vault, arch”).
Cognate with Old Saxon baco (“back”), Dutch bake (“ham, side of bacon”), Old High German bahho (“ham, side of bacon”), whence German Bache f (“wild sow”), Alemannic German Bache m (“bacon”).
(police): Extension of pig (“police”).

Synonyms

1st Baron Verulam, Baron Verulam, Francis Bacon, ham, pork, Roger Bacon, Sir Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans

Scrabble Score: 9

bacon is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
bacon is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
bacon is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 12

bacon is a valid Words With Friends word