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  1. farthingale love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A support, such as a hoop, worn beneath a skirt to extend it horizontally from the waist, used by European women in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A contrivance for extending the skirts of women's dresses, resembling the modern hooped skirt and made of ribs of whalebone run into a cloth foundation. It was introduced into England from France about 1545. It reached its greatest degree and inconvenience about 1610, when it gave the skirt an almost perfectly cylindrical form, the top of the cylinder being covered by the short skirt of a kind of basque maintained in a nearly horizontal position, or by loosely puffed folds of the material of the dress. It was still in use as late as 1662. Compare hoop and crinoline.

Wiktionary

  1. n. now historical A hooped structure in cloth worn to extend the skirt of women's dresses; a hooped petticoat.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A hoop skirt or hoop petticoat, or other light, elastic material, used to extend the petticoat.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a hoop worn beneath a skirt to extend it horizontally; worn by European women in the 16th and 17th centuries

Etymologies

  1. From Middle French verdugale, from Spanish verdugado, from verdugo ("rod"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Alteration of obsolete verdynggale, from Old French verdugale, from Old Spanish verdugado, from verdugo, stick, shoot of a tree, from verde, green, from Latin viridis, from virēre, to be green. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “I stare at them as I am laced into my corset and hoop-skirted farthingale.”

    Simon & Schuster: Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer

  • “Catherine Seyton presently exclaimed, “They were bearing the dishes across the court, marshalled by the Lady Lochleven herself, dressed out in her highest and stiffest ruff, with her partlet and sleeves of cyprus, and her huge old-fashioned farthingale of crimson velvet.””

    The Abbot

  • ““I believe on my word,” said the page, approaching the window also, “it was in that very farthingale that she captivated the heart of gentle King Jamie, which procured our poor Queen her precious bargain of a brother.””

    The Abbot

  • “We did not disdain the word in farthingale = pet en air.”

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night

  • ““Would you have your fair greyhound, dear lady, grow up a tall and true Cotswold dog, that can pull down a stag of ten, or one of those smooth-skinned poppets which the Florence ladies lead about with a ring of bells round its neck, and a flannel farthingale over its loins?””

    Westward Ho!

  • “A bell with an old voice — which I dare say in its time had often said to the house, Here is the green farthingale, Here is the diamond – hilted sword, Here are the shoes with red heels and the blue solitaire — sounded gravely in the moonlight, and two cherry – colored maids came fluttering out to receive Estella.”

    Great Expectations

  • “She could feel underclothes, linen drawers, silken chemise, a farthingale with its stiffened hoops.”

    Ill Met By Moonlight

  • “The Marie Antoinette-styled skirt (think farthingale hips and a little bustle in the bum) had a train and was beaded with crystals as well.”

    qdiosa Diary Entry

  • “Persons of fashion had, by the way, the advantage formerly of being better distinguished from the vulgar than at present; for, what the ancient farthingale and more modern hoop were to court ladies, the sword was to the gentleman; an article of dress, which only rendered those ridiculous who assumed it for the nonce, without being in the habit of wearing it.”

    The Fortunes of Nigel

  • “But trusting in my practice and study of the art, I resolved to try a back with him; and when my arms were round him once, the giant was but a farthingale put into the vice of a blacksmith.”

    Lorna Doone

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hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. hoop

same context (25)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. Webb
  2. Warner
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  4. carcanet
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  1. mammae
  2. turtleback
  3. cowling
  4. ruche
  5. corset
  1. morion
  2. topknot
  3. Louvre
  4. knitting-bag
  5. banian
  1. typesetters
  2. playwright
  3. bedgown
  4. boddice
  5. goune
  1. cuirass
  2. puffin
  3. dovecot
  4. manor-house
  5. megatherium

reverse dictionary (7)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. vardingale
  1. verdingale
  1. fardingale
  1. crinoline
  1. fardingdale
  1. ferdigew
  1. petticoat

tags (3)

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  1. examples
  1. crinoline
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Lists

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Comments

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  • knitandpurl "Its scales rose to form a stiff, brilliantly colored armor, a farthingale glimmering every shade of violet and green."
    "Hungerford Bridge" by Elizabeth Hand: p 122 of Errantry: Strange Stories Apr 27, 2013

  • frindley Takes the form of a coarse linen underskirt stretched over iron wire to support the skirts. Also known as a vertugardin or in Spain as a guard-infanta Oct 12, 2008

  • sionnach hoop skirt, Tudor ancestor of the 19th century crinoline Oct 6, 2007

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‘farthingale’ has been looked up 1967 times, loved by 2 people, added to 15 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 18.