Bernicle

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A marine organism that belongs to a group of crustaceans characterized by their hard shells and their ability to attach themselves to various surfaces in water
2. A type of aquatic crustacean that typically has a hard shell and adheres to surfaces in marine habitats through a specialized structure
3. A small marine animal with a hard, protective shell that firmly fixes itself to underwater objects

Etymology: The spelling "bernicle" is a variant of "barnacle," and the word's most striking history belongs to the goose, not the crustacean. Medieval writers knew a northern goose that wintered in Britain and Ireland, and they had never seen it nest. Gerald of Wales, writing in Ireland around 1187, reported that these geese grew on trees, hanging from timber by their beaks, from fruit that dropped into the water and hatched. The name for that goose, "bernake" in Middle English, was apparently linked to the shellfish that clung to ships and driftwood, and the belief seems to have run in that direction: the goose was supposedly born from the shell, not the reverse. The word's ultimate origin is uncertain. It likely came into English from Anglo-Norman or Medieval Latin forms such as "bernaca," but scholars have not agreed on the source of that root. The crustacean sense, which is the one in your definition, appears to have been transferred from the bird name, so the goose legend is the older story and the barnacle is the afterthought.