barnacle [ME] A barnacle was originally what we would now call a barnacle goose. The name appeared in English in the early Middle Ages, but its ultimate origin is unknown. The barnacle goose breeds in the Arctic tundra of Greenland and similar places, but for a long time its place of origin was something of a mystery. People thought it hatched from a type of barnacle that attaches itself to objects floating in the water and has long feathery filaments protruding from its shell, which presumably suggested the notion of plumage. The shellfish itself started to be called a barnacle in the late 16th century.