a bare simmer

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:28 AM -0500 8/9/04, Sally Donlon wrote:
>The adjectival use of "bare" meaning "mere" may not be in
>the OED, but other such uses spring to mind immediately:
>bare minimum, bare necessity, bare facts.
>
>sally donlon

It is in the OED.   AHD4 has

4. Having no addition, adornment, or qualification: the bare facts.

The OED has the following; evidently, "bare necessity" surfaces in
Addison's "bare necessaries" (you'll have to draw in the dancing
bear).

III. Without anything of the nature of addition.

11. Without addition, mere, simple;  and nothing else,  only. bare
contract in Law: an
unconditional promise or surrender.

c1200 Moral Ode 137 in Lamb. Hom. 167 Hefde he bon er enne dei oer
twa bare tide.
...
1711 ADDISON Spect. No. 69. 5 Nature indeed furnishes us with the
bare Necessaries of Life. 1769 Junius Lett. xiii. 56 A bare
contradiction will have no weight.
1844 LD. BROUGHAM Brit. Const. xix. §6 (1862) 373 A bare majority of seven to
five.

>
>
>
>Barbara Need wrote:
>
>>A recipe for a dish I made this evening asked me to "cook [the
>>chicken] at a bare simmer". Well, I knew what was meant* but it
>>seemed odd to me. On the other hand, Google gives me 1800 hits for
>>the phrase!
>>
>>Is there anyone familiar with this use?
>>
>>* I suspect it is from something like "barely a simmer" or "barely
>>simmering". The adjectival use of _bare_ meaning 'mere' is not in the
>>OED.
>>
>>Barbara Need
>>UChicago--Linguistics