I just heard someone on NPR say “he is one of the best singers, bar none.”
It’s very easy to scramble your language when being interviewed live, as I know from experience.
“Bar none” means “with no exceptions,” so only one singer can be the best, bar none.
The Oxford English Dictionary dates this expression back to the mid-nineteenth century, but it was built on a meaning of “bar” that goes back centuries earlier: “to exclude.”
Shakespeare’s Mistress Quickly tells Falstaff “I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater, but I do not love swaggering.” She’s the hostess of the Boar’s Head Tavern, so the Boar Bar bars no honest customers. Of course it doesn’t bar Falstaff, either.
It’s very easy to scramble your language when being interviewed live, as I know from experience.
“Bar none” means “with no exceptions,” so only one singer can be the best, bar none.
The Oxford English Dictionary dates this expression back to the mid-nineteenth century, but it was built on a meaning of “bar” that goes back centuries earlier: “to exclude.”
Shakespeare’s Mistress Quickly tells Falstaff “I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater, but I do not love swaggering.” She’s the hostess of the Boar’s Head Tavern, so the Boar Bar bars no honest customers. Of course it doesn’t bar Falstaff, either.
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