Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Baldrick

Definition: Baldrick

Baldrick

Noun

1. A wide (ornamented) belt worn over the right shoulder to support a sword or bugle by the left hip.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "baldrick" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)



Specialty Definitions: Baldrick

DomainDefinitions

Labor

Leather or stuff lace carried across the back and used for doing some works more safely. Source: European Union. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Specialty Definition: Baldrick

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Baldrick is a fictional character featured in the television series Blackadder.He serves as the servant, sidekick and frequent punch-bag of Edmund Blackadder and is played by the actor Tony Robinson. Just as Blackadder exists in many incarnations throughout the ages, so does Baldrick; wherever there is a Blackadder there is a Baldrick serving him. Initially Baldrick was the smart one and Blackadder the idiot, but as Blackadder's social status has fallen so has Baldrick's intelligence, while Blackadder's rises with each series.

Intelligent or not, Baldrick is always one for inventing "cunning plans", which are generally ridiculed by Blackadder, who nevertheless ends up using them. So much is the character associated with the phrase, "I have a cunning plan," that for example there is a landmine detection device that is so cunning that it is has been dubbed the Baldrick. (I heard about this on the radio in someplace like Cambodia or Afghanistan -- does anyone have a particular reference to it?)

Other traits shared by all Baldricks (except possibly the first one) are sheer disgustingness and an obsession with turnips.

Baldrick isn't given any sort of first name until the third series, when he speculates that it might be "Sod Off", since his childhood friends would say "Sod Off Baldrick". A diplomatic Blackadder opts to record him as "S. Baldrick" and come the next series, the credits read: Private S. Baldrick.

In the Blackadder pilot episode Baldrick was played by Philip Fox.

An indication of their relationship, from Blackadder II:

...

KATE The word is that your servant is the worst servant in London.

BLACKADDER Mmmmm. That's true. Baldrick, you're fired. Be out of the house in ten minutes.

...

BLACKADDER Sorry, Baldrick. Any reason you're still here?

BALDRICK I've got nowhere to go, my lord.

BLACKADDER Oh, surely you'll be allowed to starve to death in one of the royal parks?

BALDRICK I've been in your service since I was two and a half, my lord.

BLACKADDER Well, that must be why I'm so utterly sick of the sight of you.

...

See also: Baldric

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Baldrick."

Top     

Synonym: Baldrick

Synonym: baldric (n). (additional references)

Top     

.

Crosswords: Baldrick

Specialty definitions using "baldrick": King of the Teign. (references)

Top     

Modern Usage: Baldrick

DomainUsage

Screenplays

Name Baldrick stop. (Blackadder Goes Forth; writing credit: Richard Curtis; Ben Elton)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Usage Frequency: Baldrick

"Baldrick" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Baldrick" is used about 6 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Noun (proper)100%6143,867

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Top     

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Baldrick

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

baldrick st

11

baldrick

3

baldrick s

2

baldrick thomas

2

baldrick shaving st

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Modern Translations: Baldrick

Language Translations for "baldrick"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Danish

  

skulderremme, skulderbælte, læderremme. (various references)

   

Dutch

  

schouderband. (various references)

   

Finnish

  

turvahihnat. (various references)

   

French

  

baudrier. (various references)

   

German

  

Lederriemenschutz, Degengehänge. (various references)

   

Greek 

  

ζώνη (area, band, belt, cincture, cordon, girdle, ribbed band, ribbing, safety belt, sash, seat belt, shingles, truss, waistband, zone). (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

aldrickbay.(various references)

   

Spanish

  

guarnición de cuero. (various references)

   

Swedish

  

skyddssele, skulderrem. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Top     

Derivations: Baldrick

Derivations

Words beginning with "baldrick": baldricks. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Top     

Anagrams: Baldrick

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "a-b-c-d-i-k-l-r"

-1 letter: baldric.

-2 letters: bardic, bridal, ribald.

-3 letters: acrid, alcid, baric, black, braid, brail, brick, caird, daric, drail, kibla, laird, liard, libra, lidar, rabic, rabid.

-4 letters: abri, acid, arid, aril, back, bail, bald, balk, bard, bark, bilk, bird, birk, birl, brad, cadi, caid, calk, carb, card, cark, carl, clad, crab, crib, darb, dark, dial, dick, dirk, dirl, drab, drib, ilka, kadi, kail, kbar, lack, laic, laid, lair, lard, lari, lark, liar, lick, lira, rack, raid, rail, raki, rial, rick.

-5 letters: aid, ail, air, alb, arb, arc, ark, bad, bal, bar, bid, bra, cab, cad, car, dab, dak, dal, dib, ick, ilk, irk, kab, kid, kir, lab, lac, lad, lar, lib, lid, rad, ria, rib, rid.

 Words containing the letters "a-b-c-d-i-k-l-r"
 

+1 letter: baldricks, blackbird.

 

+2 letters: backslider, blackbirds.

 

+3 letters: backsliders, blackbirded, blackbirder.

 

+4 letters: blackbirders, blackbirding, roadblocking.

 

+5 letters: blackguarding, blackguardism.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Top     

Alternative Orthography: Baldrick


Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

42 61 6C 64 72 69 63 6B

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

=

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

-...    .-    .-..    -..    .-.    ..    -.-.    -.-

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01000010 01100001 01101100 01100100 01110010 01101001 01100011 01101011

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#66 &#97 &#108 &#100 &#114 &#105 &#99 &#107

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0042 0061 006C 0064 0072 0069 0063 006B

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

3667787084756977

Top     

 

INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage Frequency
6. Expressions: Internet
7. Translations: Modern
8. Derivations
9. Anagrams
10. Orthography
11. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.