Having read the portion of Ulysses I had, I expected the word “bar” to have more of a correlation with its modern use, as a synonym to tavern of pub. Instead, it has taken a hefty amount of digging to find a definition fitting this modern usage. Instead, the most frequent definition seems to be closer to:
- A piece of any material long in proportion to its thickness or width.
* Of shape only.
However, the most relevant usage seems to me could be “bar” used in terms of currency, as follows: “c. A pound; esp. in half a bar, ten shillings. slang.”
The rest are as follows:
- An ornamental transverse band on a girdle, saddle, etc.; subseq.an ornamental boss of any shape. Also, a girdle or band. Obs.
b. A small slip of silver fixed transversely below the clasp of a medal, as an additional mark of distinction.
- A straight strip or stripe, narrow in proportion to its length, a broad line; e.g. of colour. stars and bars:
- Heraldry. An honourable ordinary, formed (like the fess) by two parallel lines drawn horizontally across the shield, and including not more than its fifth part. bar sinister: in popular, but erroneous phrase, the heraldic sign of illegitimacy; see batn n., bend n.1, (sinister). bar-gemel: a double bar, or small bars placed in couplets.
- esp. A stake or rod of iron or wood used to fasten a gate, door, hatch, etc.
- In colloq. phr. behind bars, of a person: in prison, locked away.
- [Getting more into the alcohol vein of the word:] A transverse piece of wood making fast the head of a wine-cask. (If a cask is lying horizontal, wine is drawn from ‘below the bar,’ when it is more than half empty.)
