'barnburner' originates from English, specifically a compound of 'barn' and 'burner', where 'barn' meant 'farm building' and 'burner' meant 'one who burns'.

'barnburner' changed from the 19th-century political epithet 'Barnburners' (a faction of the New York Democratic Party) and later developed figurative senses meaning 'destructive radical' and then 'a spectacular or exciting event'.

Initially it meant 'a person who burns barns' (literal and then a label for destructive radicals); over time it evolved into the figurative sense 'a spectacular or exciting affair'.