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The word "bar" is defined as:

Something that obstructs or prevents passage, progress, or action as:

a: the destruction of an action or claim in law; also: a plea or objection that effects such destruction

b: an intangible or nonphysical impediment

c: a submerged or partly submerged bank (as of sand) along a shore or in a river often obstructing navigation.

Hence:

The word BAR as in Public Bar means the COUNTER where a person stands to order their beer. Here in London the BAR in a pub is often called THE JUMP. The reason being is that the purpose of the BAR is to stop customers (drunken) from taking beer for free. It also acts as a secure barrier between the Bar Staff and their Customers. Originally the title "PUBLIC BAR" also meant that the prices of beer sold in such a BAR were under the control of the local authority. This was done to ensure that the working man could afford his lunchtime pint of beer. In the 18th and early 19th C no one ever drank plain water unless they wanted to die. Small beer of low alc was consumed instead. I think most of us including the kids were never quite sober and with Gin at a Penny a Pint things really did become quite serious. Binge drinking is not new to the British, it's very much a part of our way of life. In this case the "bar" is the sand bar at the mouth of a river where it joins the sea. Often the this is point of greatest anxiety for a sea voyage that begins or ends in the channel of a river. The flow of the river and the swell of the turning tide of the sea give rise to currents that are observed to audibly "moan" when at their worst. The Columbia river bar is of note.

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12y ago

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