# bacon

Pronunciation: say "BAY-kuhn" /ˈbeɪ.kən/

## Noun

1. Meat from the sides, belly or back of a pig, preserved by curing.
   - Simple: Pig meat from the sides, belly or back, treated with salt so it keeps.
   - _The farm cures its own bacon with salt and brown sugar._
   - _She browned some diced bacon with onions before adding the beans._
2. Cured pork from the sides, belly or back of a pig, sliced thin into long strips.
   - Simple: Salted pig meat cut into thin, long pieces.
   - _Lay the bacon flat on a baking sheet so the strips cook evenly._
   - _The diner's club sandwich comes with four crisp strips of bacon._
3. The police or spies, referred to with contempt. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A rude name for the police or for spies.
   - _Somebody must have called the bacon, because two squad cars showed up within minutes._
   - _Watch what you say on the phone, the bacon might be listening._
4. In cycling slang, road rash: skin scraped raw by sliding across the road surface in a crash. *(slang)*
   - Simple: In cycling, skin that is scraped raw after a fall onto the road.
   - _Two riders went down on the wet corner and finished the stage with bacon on their hips and shoulders._
   - _Scrubbing the grit out of his bacon hurt more than the crash itself._

## Origin

From Middle English bacoun ("meat from the back and sides of a pig"), from Anglo-Norman bacon, bacun ("ham, flitch, strip of lard"), from Old Low Frankish *bakō ("ham, flitch"), from Proto-Germanic *bakô, *bakkô ("back"), the source of English back, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- ("back, buttocks; to vault, arch"). It is related to Old Saxon baco ("back"), Dutch bake and Old High German bahho ("ham, side of bacon"). The police sense is an extension of pig ("police").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/bacon (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).