any marine crustacean of the subclass Cirripedia, usually having a calcareous shell, being either stalked (goose barnacle) and attaching itself to ship bottoms and floating timber, or stalkless (rock barnacle or acorn barnacle) and attaching itself to rocks, esp. in the intertidal zone.
2.
a person or thing that clings tenaciously.
Origin: 1580–85; perh. a conflation of barnaclebarnacle goosewith Cornish brennyk, Ir báirneach limpet, Welsh brenig limpets, reflecting the folk belief that such geese, whose breeding grounds were unknown, were engendered from rotten ships' planking
goose barnacle n. Any of various barnacles of the genus Lapas, having a fleshy stalk that attaches to rocks or floating objects such as ship hulls. Also called gooseneck barnacle.
barnacle (bär'nə-kəl) Pronunciation Key
Any of various small marine crustaceans of the subclass Cirripedia that form a hard shell in the adult stage and attach themselves to underwater surfaces, such as rocks, the bottoms of ships, and the skin of whales.
[bahr-nuh-kuh
l] 