We love discovering ways that the name of a breed appears in lexicon. Certainly, the newly AKC recognized breed, the Barbet, has impacted French, and one way is heard in the expression, “être crotté comme un barbet” which means to be very, very muddy. Another is “boueux comme un barbet,” which, translated, means “muddy like a barbet.” We suppose it’s possible that in these cases, “barbet” refers to a red mullet, a type of fish, but we doubt it. Fish are found in water, and the breed known as the Barbet is a water retriever and, it stands to reason that such a dog that gets muddy in the course of its activity.  

In 1866, Charles Virmaitre wrote in Forgotten Paris this line: “The doglits, tank tops, titis, musketeers, chicards, gods of Olympus and grotesques pious pious, come there from all the points of Paris, on foot, muddy like barbets, half stupid.”

On page 228 of the novel, The Vatard Sisters, written in 1879 by French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans, this sentence appears: “Désirée and Céline came back from the workshop, muddy like barbets , and they began to shake off their mud, to scratch their rags, in order to be able to go faster after the meal.”

References date back even earlier. The 17th century philosopher, Voltaire, is believed to have written in a letter: Barbet dogs may have the reputation of being the best friends in the world, they are not worth us. 

But wait, it goes back even earlier. In the Dictionnaire Etymologique et Historique Francais written by Larousse in 1964, he noted that the definition of the word, “barbet” (as a breed) dated back as far as 1540: “Homme barbu” and “chien barbet.” There were no breeds defined then, only types of dogs according to the work they performed and the coats they “wore.” Barbet, then, had different definitions: Barbette, bar-bichon, barbichette (female-little beard), barbone (big beard) – all derive from the same root word – “barbe” meaning beard.

And finally, in what sounds like the beginning of a joke is a line we can’t find attributed…..”A barbet hunter, a crook, who breaks into houses under the pretext of looking for a lost dog….”

It sounds like an invitation to finish the joke.

Image: Glass Barbet by NHarrisandSon is available for purchase here