▪ I. buskin
(ˈbʌskɪn)
Also 6 buskyn(g, busken, 6–7 buskine, busgin.
[A word existing in many European langs.: known in Eng. since 16th c. Cf. Fr. brousequin (16th c.), early mod.Du. brōzeken (now broosken), Sp. borcegu{iacu}, formerly also boszegui, Pg. borzeguim (Dozy cites as earlier forms morsequill, mosequin), It. borzacchino; the synonymous Fr. brodequin, brodekin, q.v., is doubtless related, but the phonetic relations are obscure. The special source of the Eng. is uncertain: the early mention of ‘Spanish buskin’ might suggest that it was adopted from Spain, a view in some degree supported by the fact that OSp. boszegu{iacu} (Minsheu) is the only continental form without the r. (The Sp. word appears to have originally had a final n: cf. borceguinero buskin maker.) But it is not impossible that the Eng. word was corrupted from Fr. or Du.
The ultimate etymology is unknown. Diez regarded the Romanic words as a. Du. brōzeken, and this as a dim. of brōze, supposed by him to be ultimately ad. late L. byrsa leather. But the wide diffusion of the word in Romanic and its late appearance in Du. are inconsistent with this hypothesis, which Dutch etymologists decisively reject (see brodekin); and the Romanic forms do not admit of derivation from byrsa. The appearance of the Sp. and Pg. words suggests an oriental origin, but the Arabic etymology proposed by Dozy is far-fetched and untenable. The OF. broissequin, brusquin, the name of a woollen fabric, is prob. unconnected; Godef. says that the material was so called from its colour: cf. brusk.]
1. A covering for the foot and leg reaching to the calf, or to the knee; a half-boot.
| 1503 Privy P. Exp. Eliz. York (1830) 86 Twoo payre of buskins for the Quenes grace at..iiijs. the payre. 1530 Palsgr. 202/1 Buskyng, brodequin. Ibid. 907 The buskyns, les brousequins. c 1550 Wyll of Deuyll (Collier) 9, I geue to euery Ruffian..a payre of chayned buskens. 1579 Lanc. Wills (1860) II. 178 My Spanishe buskins furred. 1596 Spenser F.Q. i. vi. 16 Sometimes Diana he her takes to be; But misseth bow and shaftes, and buskins to her knee. 1671 F. Phillips Reg. Necess. 28 They..put on Furre Buskins of white Leather. 1683 Chalkhill Thealma & Cl. 51 White Buskins lac'd with ribbanding they wore. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. III. lxiii. 583 He assumed the royal privilege of red shoes or buskins. 1860 C. M. Yonge Stokesley Secret i. (1880) 186 A..shrewd-looking labourer in..high buskins and old wide-awake. |
2. spec. The high thick-soled boot (cothurnus) worn by the actors in ancient Athenian tragedy; frequently contrasted with the ‘sock’ (soccus), or low shoe worn by comedians.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 133 A Buskin, cothurnus. 1597 Bp. Hall Sat. i. i. 19 Trumpet, and reeds, and socks, and buskins fine. 1663 Bp. Patrick Parab. Pilgr. xxxiv. (1668) 262 The Play is ended, and the high-heel'd Buskins are pull'd off. 1763 J. Brown Poetry & Mus. vi. 119 The Buskin..hightened the Stature. 1871 Morley Crit. Misc. (1886) I. 127 Doff the buskin or the sock, wash away the paint from their cheeks, and gravely sit down to meat. |
b. Hence fig. and transf. The style or spirit of this class of drama; the tragic vein; tragedy. to put on the buskins: to assume a tragic style; to write tragedy.
| 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Oct. 113 How I could reare the Muse on stately stage, And teache her tread aloft in bus-kin fine. [Gloss., the buskin in poetrie is vsed for tragical matter.] 1679 Dryden Tr. & Cr. Pref. B ij, I doubt to smell a little too strongly of the Buskin. 1711 H. Cromwell Let. to Pope 7 Dec. 1736 V. 114 Mr. Wilks..has express'd a furious ambition to swell in your buskins. 1817 Byron Beppo xxxi, He was a critic upon operas, too, And knew all niceties of the sock and buskin. 1860 A. L. Windsor Ethica iii. 171 Our English dramatists combine the office of comedy and tragedy writers in one and the same person.. Aristophanes, Plautus, and Terence never put on the buskin. |
c. attrib. = Tragic.
| 1602 Return fr. Parnass. i. ii. (Arb.) 12 Marlowe was happy in his buskine muse. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 47 ¶5 Gentlemen who write in the Buskin Style. 1747 W. Horsley Fool (1748) ii. 187 The Stile..has something of the Buskin Vaunt. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as buskin-maker; buskin-wise adv., after the manner of a buskin.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Borzoguineria a buskin makers shop, Cothurnaria sutrina. 1637 Brian Pisse-Proph. (1679) 47 This messenger..is a very plain fellow in his Holy-day Jacket, and his busking Hose. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. II. s.v. Knee, Wrap the Knees in Oil Cloth, Buskinwise. |
▪ II. ˈbuskin, v. nonce-wd.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To cover as with a buskin.
| 1795 Monthly Rev. XVIII. 542 Her population..had zoned every hill with vines..and buskined its foot with the various species of corn. |