Meaning of ばかりに

Question

While reading the second volume of 僕の愛したジークフリード I found this sentence:

彼女の剣腕は魔術と見まごうばかりに圧倒的で、僕はそれを未知の魔術と推測して彼女を追いかけた

I know ばかりに can mean "only, nothing but" and "simply because", but these meanings doesn't seem to fit in that sentence.

I know とばかりに, with intial と, means something along "as if, as though" (one related answer, another), so I as wondering: can it have that meaning also without the initial と? Is it a typo? Or is it a different construction?

Answer 1

とばかりに should have derived from と言わんばかりに (or とXんばかりに for some verb X).

Note all the examples from the linked answers work with 言わん inserted.

• 父は出て行けと言わんばかりに玄関を指さした
• 雨がやんだので、チャンスと言わんばかりに外に出た
• 花嫁修業と言わんばかりに料理教室に通った
• 難しい本を読み切ったので、お祝いと言わんばかりにシャンパンを買って帰った

As naruto's answer says, the basic meaning of ばかりに is to the degree ... will.

Literally と言わんばかりに means to the degree (the subject) will (almost) say..., which (mostly) naturally renders as if.

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ばかりに without と appears when it is used with verbs (in volitional form) that does not take quotative と, as in 見まごうばかり

Examples

• 頭が割れんばかりにいたい My head aches to the degree it will break
• 酒があふれんばかりに注がれていた The sake filled (up a cup) to the degree it will spill over

Answer 2

This ばかり is roughly the same as ほど, or "almost (to the point where ～)". 魔術と見まごうばかりに圧倒的 is the same as 魔術と見まごうほど圧倒的, or "overwhelming to the point where one mistakes it as magic" or "so overwhelming that I almost mistook it as magic".

In JLPT, a similar construction seems to be taught as an N1 grammar point (JLPT N1 Grammar: んばかりに (n bakari ni)), but somehow all the example sentences contain ん. In reality, this ん is not necessarily mandatory, so 見まがわんばかりに and 見まがうばかりに can be used interchangeably. For example, 割れんばかりの拍手, 割れるばかりの拍手, 割れんほどの拍手 and 割れるほどの拍手 are all correct, though the first one may sound the most idiomatic. (As an exception, ～と言わんばかり is a fixed phrase and 言うばかり is rare.)

Note: みまごう is a variation that appears only in the predicative/attributive form. See this.