Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A housewife.
- n. Same as hussy.
Examples
“By the way, “hussy” comes from archaic English “housewife” at the time pronounced “hussif”.”
“I shall not write to mother and sisters to say we be married, as I said I would do; and I shan't finish the good-hussif 'I cut out and meant to make while we were in lodgings.”
“I shall not write to mother and sisters to say we be married, as I said I would do; and I shan't finish the good-hussif ”
“Trangia, hussif and all and all nicely packed up in my Cyclops Roc.”
“The guidebook has a section on "Housewifery" which reads, "Every Girl Scout is as much a ‘hussif 'as she is a girl.”
"Make It Yourself": Home Sewing, Gender, and Culture, 1890-1930
“a rather decrepit hussif and a hank of strong linen thread.”
“a shabby little hussif, containing a thimble, scissors, needles and some skeins of unbleached thread.”
“Spare yourself the misery of discovering in the hearty, fleshy Lincolnshire hussif the decay of the promises of years ago; be content to do reverence to the ideal Fiammetta who has built her little shrine in your sympathetic heart! ”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hussif’.
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Outlander series words
A place for me to keep words I found (or found anew) while reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. (Culling my enormous "Learned (or Encountered) in Reading" list.)
gralloch, yeuk, corpse-candle, saprophytic, baldachin, Kermanshah, celandine, tynchal, quaich, mesentery, basidium, dittany and 244 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hussif.
chained_bear "... a clever arrangement of compartments that held handy his shot pouch, powder horn, a spare knife, a coil of fishing line, a roll of twine for a snare, a hussif with pins, needles, and thread...."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 180
I'm guessing that this word is a corruption of housewife, which was a slang-ish historical term for a portable sewing kit, especially one that men (e.g. soldiers, travelers, etc.) carried. Jan 30, 2010
chained_bear "One of the buttons was loose. He took the hussif out of his kit, threaded a needle without squinting, and whipped the button tightly to the coat."
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 633 Dec 17, 2009