Bacon

Ba·con

The back and sides of a pig salted and smoked; formerly, the flesh of a pig salted or fresh.

Bacon beetle: a beetle (Dermestes lardarius) which, especially in the larval state, feeds upon bacon, woolens, furs, etc. See Dermestes.
To save one's bacon: to save one's self or property from harm or loss.

prop. n.

Roger Bacon. A celebrated English philosopher of the thirteenth century. Born at or near Ilchester, Somersetshire, about 1214: died probably at Oxford in 1294. He is credited with a recognition of the importance of experiment in answering questions about the natural world, recognized the potential importance of gunpowder and explosives generally, and wrote comments about several of the physical sciences that anticipated facts proven by experiment only much later.

prop. n.

Francis Bacon. A celebrated English philosopher, jurist, and statesman, son of Sir Nicholas Bacon. Born at York House, London, Jan. 22, 1561: died at Highgate, April 9, 1626, created the titles Baron Verulam July 12, 1618, and Viscount St. Albans Jan. 27, 1621: commonly, but incorrectly, called Lord Bacon. His chief works are the “Advancement of Learning,” published in English as “The Two Books of Francis Bacon of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning Divine and Human,” in 1605; the “Novum organum sive indicia vera de interpretatione naturae,” published in Latin, 1620, as a second part of the (incomplete) “Instauratio magna”; the “De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum,” published in Latin in 1623; “Historia Ventorum” (1622), “Historia Vitae et Mortis” (1623), “Historia Densi et Rari” (posthumously, 1658), “Sylva Sylvarum” (posthumously, 1627), “New Atlantis, Essays” (1597, 1612, 1625), “De Sapientia Veterum” (1609), “Apothegms New and Old, History of Henry VII.” (1622). Works edited by Ellis, Spedding, and Heath (7 vols. 1857); Life by Spedding (7 vols. 1861, 2 vols. 1878).