barnraising

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From barn +‎ raising.

Noun

barnraising (plural barnraisings)

  1. The collective construction of a barn by members of a community, common in 18th- and 19th-century rural North America, and present-day Mennonite and Amish communities.
    • 1904, Charles Dudley Warner, “The American Newspaper”, in The Complete Essays of Charles Dudley Warner‎[1]:
      It was founded on a deep knowledge of human nature; namely, upon the fact that people read most eagerly that which they already know, if it is about themselves or their neighbors, if it is a report of something they have been concerned in, a lecture they have heard, a fair, or festival, or wedding, or funeral, or barn-raising they have attended.
    • 1912, Willa Cather, The Bohemian Girl‎[2]:
      “So Olaf is building a new barn?” Nils asked absently. “Biggest one in the county, and almost done. You'll likely be here for the barn-raising. He's going to have a supper and a dance as soon as everybody's done threshing. Says it keeps the voters in good humour. I tell him that's all nonsense; but Olaf has a head for politics.”
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.