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. borceguí, formerly also bossegui, 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. boszeguí (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 color: 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. Philipps, Reg. Necess., 28. They … put on Furre Buskins of white Leather.
1683. Chalkhill, Thealma & Cl., 5. 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. Miss Yonge, Stokesley Secr., 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, Lett. 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; buskinwise 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.
