buskin

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (2)  · 
The shoe worn on the ancient stage by comedians as the buskin was by tragedians Lydian airs_.

View all »
Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A foot and leg covering reaching halfway to the knee, resembling a laced half boot.
  2. noun A thick-soled laced half boot worn by actors of Greek and Roman tragedies.
  3. noun Tragedy, especially that which resembles a Greek tragedy.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • I remembered Horace's 'Praecipe lugubres cantus, Melpomene,' and Cowley's 'I called the buskin'd muse Melpomene and told her what sad story I would write,' and suggested Melpomene, or Penthos: Melpomene was adopted.—The first move about the Deal Time Ball was in a letter from Commander Baldock to the Admiralty, suggesting that a Time Ball, dropped by galvanic current from Greenwich, should be attached to one of the South Foreland Lighthouses. —  Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy
  • Mr. Ficket, the blacksmith, begged it to take home for its skin, as he said for buskin-strings and flail-strings. —  A Study Of Hawthorne
  • Mr. Douglass possesses great dramatic powers; and had he taken up the sock and buskin, instead of becoming a lecturer, he would have made as fine a Coriolanus as ever trod the stage. —  Three Years in Europe
  • "May it not seeme enough for a courtier to know how to weare a feather and set his cappe aflaunt; his chain en echarpe_; a straight buskin, al Inglese_; a loose à la Turquesque_; the cape alla Spaniola_; the breech à la Françoise_, and, by twentie maner of new-fashioned garments, to disguise his body and his face with as many countenances, whereof it seems there be many that make a very arte and studie, who can shewe himselfe most fine, I will not say most foolish or ridiculous." —  Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3)
  • I signed my agreement the same evening for two months; and being presented in due form to my brethren of the buskin, joined the supper-table, where there was more of abundance than of delicacies. —  Frank Mildmay The Naval Officer
 

Tags

buskin hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 76 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Perhaps alteration (influenced by buckskin) of obsolete French broisequin, small leather boot.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English also busking, prob. for *bruskin, from Middle Dutch broosken, broseken (later F. brousequin, brodequin; cf. brodekin), a buskin, diminutive of broos, a buskin, apparently orig. a purse; cf. Middle Dutch borsekin, a little purse, diminutive of borse, a purse: see burse, purse.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/ˈbəskɪn/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a year.

Recently looked up

widget · single-issue · Indigenismo · bree · favoring

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

fattoria · Wenn du Wachsmasken magst: Max macht Wachsmasken. · supercalifragilistichespiralidoso · Wenn Lloyds Leute heute läuten, läuten Lloyds Leute heute laut. · telofy