barrack n Also rarely barracks [Folk-etym of Du berg, barg (often in compound hooiberg) open-sided storage place for hay, etc, with a movable cap] chiefly eNY, nNJ, also C Atl
A Dutch cap n; occas some other type of shed for storing hay or other crops—often in comb hay barrack.
[1697 in 1852 Munsell Annals Albany 3.27 NY, Desyred yt his Estate of Lands, houses, Barns, Berghs, &c., should be apprized by indifferent good men.] 1741 NY Weekly Jrl. (NY) 22 Feb [3]/2, Extract of a Letter from Kingston. . . [T]he Negro then took the Opportunity and set Fire to one of the Corn Barracks. 1756 in 1941 Woodward Ploughs & Politicks 371 NJ, A Barrack of 10 ft. Plate 5 posted contains 166 superficial square feet & 1 ft. & 2/10 high will hold a load of hay Settled or being 15 ft. high will hold 12 and 1/2 load. 1768 NY Gaz. & Weekly Mercury (NY) 21 Nov [3]/3, [Advt:] A poultry house conveniently finished. . ; three large five pole barracks, covered with cedar. 1831 Sherburne Memoirs 293 seNY, We proceeded about fifteen miles that night, and slept in a hay barrack. 1845 Amer. Farmer & Spirit 1.76 cnMD, Your barrack, or rather mow,—unless soldiers and hay be synonymous!—should be built of light yet durable wood, and roofed with plank. . . It should also be planked from the eaves five feet down. 1848 Bartlett Americanisms 173, Hay barrack. (Dutch, Hooi-berg, a hay-rick.) A straw-thatched roof, supported by four posts, capable of being raised or lowered at pleasure, under which hay is kept. A term peculiar to New York State. 1854 Harper’s New Mth. Mag. 9.849/2 NY, We crept slyly around a ‘barrack,’ as it is called, of standing hay, and by the pegs at a corner-post we climbed up to the top of the hay-mow, under the straw-thatched roof, and lay down. 1862 Country Gentleman 19.370 seNY, The old fashioned barrack, as it is called, is built twenty feet square. . . The best way to build a barrack, is with sills and girts seven feet from the sills, and braced. You can fill it from the ground or hay poles on the girts, and have shelter under for sheep or cattle. 1890 Harper’s Young People 11.185 wCT, The crannies in the hay-barracks beneath the conical roof are a favorite haunt for their [=the Antiopa moths’] hibernation. 1907 Rural New-Yorker 66.69, Whenever we refer to the hay barracks used in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and other Eastern States, we are asked what a barrack is. 1949 Kurath Word Geog. 54, The Dutch settlement area (western Long Island and the Hudson and Mohawk valleys) has barrack, a term of Dutch origin. 1958 Cedar Rapids Gaz. (IA) 18 May 13/1 eIA, Apparently hay barracks were fairly common in the area at one time because Thomas has 3 jacks for raising the roof that he purchased at farm sales. 1966 in 1982 Barrick Coll. csPA, There was an old barracks there, put hay in it. . . It was weather-boarded. 1965–70 DARE (Qu. L14, A large pile of hay stored outdoors) Inf NY79, Hay barracks—four sticks on side, very high; PA127, Barrack—50 years old, but occasionally still used; (Qu. M1, . . Special kinds of barns) Inf DC5, Hay barrack [bæ·k]; NJ1, Hay barrack—four corner poles, pole sides added, roof raised as needed on pegs; NJ10, Barrack—for straw; (Qu. M3, The place inside a barn for storing hay) Inf DC2, Hay barrack—building in the center of hay-growing area, have drive-through center, long and very high (as barn), load from wagon to sides; (Qu. M22, . . Buildings . . on farms) Inf DC8, Barracks = tobacco barn; can be used for hay; boards vertical; VA33, Barrack—old-fashioned, used to store hay, apples, and fodder. 1973 Allen LAUM 1.185 ceMN (as of c1950), Barrack appears, once in the speech of a Duluth [Minnesota] woman of European parentage, who identifies its meaning as a haypile surmounted by a protective sliding roof supported on four poles. 1978 News (Frederick MD) 5 Aug sec C 5/3, [Advt:] 45′ x 18′ x28′ hay barrack w/old barn siding & some hand hewn beams, purchaser will be given reasonable time to remove.