Technically, it isn't a bareword, AFAIK. -w doesn't complain about it, nor does use strict. It isn't a bareword, it's part of an operative phrase. You can even use perlfunc words and symbols there, try out:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

print <<print;
print me
print

(my $s = <<s) =~s/\//\/\//s;
s\/\/\/\/s
s

print "$s";
[download]

--
$you = new YOU;
honk() if $you->love(perl)