Crossword clues for bluestocking
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Blue \Blue\ (bl[=u]), a. [Compar. Bluer (bl[=u]"[~e]r); superl. Bluest.] [OE. bla, blo, blew, blue, livid, black, fr. Icel.bl[=a]r livid; akin to Dan. blaa blue, Sw. bl[*a], D. blauw, OHG. bl[=a]o, G. blau; but influenced in form by F. bleu, from OHG. bl[=a]o.]
Having the color of the clear sky, or a hue resembling it, whether lighter or darker; as, the deep, blue sea; as blue as a sapphire; blue violets. ``The blue firmament.''
--Milton.Pale, without redness or glare, -- said of a flame; hence, of the color of burning brimstone, betokening the presence of ghosts or devils; as, the candle burns blue; the air was blue with oaths.
Low in spirits; melancholy; as, to feel blue.
Suited to produce low spirits; gloomy in prospect; as, thongs looked blue. [Colloq.]
Severe or over strict in morals; gloom; as, blue and sour religionists; suiting one who is over strict in morals; inculcating an impracticable, severe, or gloomy mortality; as, blue laws.
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Literary; -- applied to women; -- an abbreviation of bluestocking. [Colloq.] The ladies were very blue and well informed. --Thackeray. Blue asbestus. See Crocidolite. Blue black, of, or having, a very dark blue color, almost black. Blue blood. See under Blood. Blue buck (Zo["o]l.), a small South African antelope ( Cephalophus pygm[ae]us); also applied to a larger species ( [AE]goceras leucoph[ae]us); the blaubok. Blue cod (Zo["o]l.), the buffalo cod. Blue crab (Zo["o]l.), the common edible crab of the Atlantic coast of the United States ( Callinectes hastatus). Blue curls (Bot.), a common plant ( Trichostema dichotomum), resembling pennyroyal, and hence called also bastard pennyroyal. Blue devils, apparitions supposed to be seen by persons suffering with delirium tremens; hence, very low spirits. ``Can Gumbo shut the hall door upon blue devils, or lay them all in a red sea of claret?'' --Thackeray. Blue gage. See under Gage, a plum. Blue gum, an Australian myrtaceous tree ( Eucalyptus globulus), of the loftiest proportions, now cultivated in tropical and warm temperate regions for its timber, and as a protection against malaria. The essential oil is beginning to be used in medicine. The timber is very useful. See Eucalyptus. Blue jack, Blue stone, blue vitriol; sulphate of copper. Blue jacket, a man-of war's man; a sailor wearing a naval uniform. Blue jaundice. See under Jaundice. Blue laws, a name first used in the eighteenth century to describe certain supposititious laws of extreme rigor reported to have been enacted in New Haven; hence, any puritanical laws. [U. S.] Blue light, a composition which burns with a brilliant blue flame; -- used in pyrotechnics and as a night signal at sea, and in military operations. Blue mantle (Her.), one of the four pursuivants of the English college of arms; -- so called from the color of his official robes. Blue mass, a preparation of mercury from which is formed the blue pill. --McElrath. Blue mold or Blue mould, the blue fungus ( Aspergillus glaucus) which grows on cheese. --Brande & C. Blue Monday,
a Monday following a Sunday of dissipation, or itself given to dissipation (as the Monday before Lent).
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a Monday considered as depressing because it is a workday in contrast to the relaxation of the weekend. Blue ointment (Med.), mercurial ointment. Blue Peter (British Marine), a blue flag with a white square in the center, used as a signal for sailing, to recall boats, etc. It is a corruption of blue repeater, one of the British signal flags. Blue pill. (Med.)
A pill of prepared mercury, used as an aperient, etc.
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Blue mass. Blue ribbon.
The ribbon worn by members of the order of the Garter; -- hence, a member of that order.
Anything the attainment of which is an object of great ambition; a distinction; a prize. ``These [scholarships] were the
--blue ribbon of the college.''
--Farrar.
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The distinctive badge of certain temperance or total abstinence organizations, as of the
--Blue ribbon Army.Blue ruin, utter ruin; also, gin. [Eng. Slang]
--Carlyle.Blue spar (Min.), azure spar; lazulite. See Lazulite.
Blue thrush (Zo["o]l.), a European and Asiatic thrush ( Petrocossyphus cyaneas).
Blue verditer. See Verditer.
Blue vitriol (Chem.), sulphate of copper, a violet blue crystallized salt, used in electric batteries, calico printing, etc.
Blue water, the open ocean.
Big Blue, the International Business Machines corporation. [Wall Street slang.] PJC
To look blue, to look disheartened or dejected.
True blue, genuine and thorough; not modified, nor mixed; not spurious; specifically, of uncompromising Presbyterianism, blue being the color adopted by the Covenanters.
For his religion . . . 'T was Presbyterian, true blue.
--Hudibras.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
also blue-stocking, 1790, derisive word for a woman considered too learned, traces to a London literary salon founded c.1750 by Elizabeth Montagu on the Parisian model, featuring intellectual discussion instead of card games, and in place of ostentatious evening attire, simple dress, including Benjamin Stillingfleet's blue-gray tradesman's hose which he wore in place of gentleman's black silk, hence the term, first applied in derision to the whole set by Admiral Boscawen. None of the ladies wore blue stockings. Borrowed by the neighbors in loan-translations, such as French bas-bleu, Dutch blauwkous, German Blaustrumpf.
Wiktionary
n. A scholarly, literary, or cultured woman.
WordNet
n. a woman having literary or intellectual interests [syn: bas bleu]
Wikipedia
A bluestocking is an educated, intellectual woman, more specifically a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society led by the hostess and critic Elizabeth Montagu (1720–1800), the "Queen of the Blues", and including Elizabeth Vesey (1715–91), Hester Chapone (1727–1801), and the classicist Elizabeth Carter (1717–1806). In the following generation came Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741–1821), Hannah More (1745–1833), and Frances Burney (1752–1840).
Until the late 18th century, the term had referred to learned people of both sexes. It subsequently was applied primarily to intellectual women, and the French equivalent bas bleu had a similar connotation. The term later developed negative implications, and in some instances such women were stereotyped as being "frumpy". The reference to blue stockings may arise from the time when woollen worsted stockings were informal dress, in contrast to formal, fashionable black silk stockings. Curiously, the most frequent such reference is to a man, Benjamin Stillingfleet, who reportedly lacked the formal black stockings, yet still participated in the Blue Stockings Society.
Bluestocking (Seitō; 青鞜) was a Japanese feminist magazine founded in 1911 by a group of 5 women including Raichō Hiratsuka, Yasumochi Yoshiko, Mozume Kazuko, Kiuchi Teiko and Nakano Hatsuko, all founding members of the Bluestocking Society ( Seitō-sha；青鞜社). The initial group of five women had all graduated from the newly established Japan Women's College and chose to adopt the term Bluestocking from the British usage, which had come to refer to feminists over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Hiratsuka opened the first issue with the words, “In the beginning, woman was the sun.” (「原始、女性は太陽であった」). Later readers thought it was a reference to the Shinto myth of creation and a then-popular idea in anthropology that all prehistoric societies had been matriarchal, but it wasn't the idea of Hiratsuka Raichô, who made rather an answer to Nietzsche's assertion about the inferiority of women. Contributors included renowned poet and women’s rights proponent Akiko Yosano and author Nobuko Yoshiya among others. The first years of the magazine were exciting ones, with thousands of contributors (including many female teachers), with one thousand to three thousand copies of issues being produced.
Many members were referred to and referred to themselves as " New Women" (shin-fujin；新婦人). This term denoted women who wore fashionable Western dress, socialized with men in public, and chose their own romantic partners. Many in the press used this term pejoratively, but the members of the Seitō-sha rejected these negative connotations and embraced an identity as leaders in the reform of gender relations.
Though originally focusing on women's literature, the magazine soon shifted focus towards women’s liberation, and the pages of Seitō are filled with essays and editorials on the question of gender equality. In many of these, members of the group air their differing opinions on issues of the day, such as the importance of a woman maintaining her virginity before marriage. Legalized prostitution, abortion, and women's suffrage were also the subject of animated discussion. Such writings caught the attention of the Ministry of Home Affairs because criticism of the system of private capital ( capitalism) was banned under the Public Order and Police Law of 1900. Two other issues would be banned by the Ministry's censorship bureau and removed from store shelves because their frank expressions of female sexuality were deemed threats to public morality.
Even more than the content of the journal, the private behavior of the core members of the Bluestocking society drew public criticism. Several of them engaged in affairs with married men, rumors of which the press exploited with gusto. But this was not separate from the journal, because members of Bluestocking often wrote essays and semi-autobiographical stories that described their struggles to form equal relationships based on mutual romantic attachment (rather than through arranged marriage) both inside and outside of marriage. Their frank discussions about premarital sex and their advocacy for women's independence in this regard led to further public condemnation.
An exhausted Hiratsuka turned over the reins to Noe Itō in 1915. Ito produced the journal with little assistance for almost another year. Its last issue was published in February 1916.
A bluestocking is an educated, intellectual woman.
Bluestocking or Bluestockings may also refer to:
- Bluestockings (bookstore), a feminist bookshop in New York
- Bluestocking (magazine), a Japanese feminist magazine
- Blue Stockings Society, a literary society for women in 18th century England
- M.P., an 1811 comic opera by Thomas Moore and Charles Edward Horn, subtitled The Blue Stocking
- Bluestockings: the Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education, a 2009 book by Jane Robinson
- Blue Stockings (play), a 2013 play by Jessica Swale
Usage examples of "bluestocking".
Annie an unlettered wantwit, however, so he kept mum about her abilities, although a bluestocking was nearly as unmarkable as an imbecile on the marriage block.
With her looks and poise and the education she had received first from their beautiful bluestocking mother and that Charlotte had continued, Ariel would have been a smashing success.
Gideon had tried to tell himself she was an annoying little bluestocking whose only passions were reserved for old bones.
Claudia, a lovely bluestocking, was twenty years old already and had never had her opportunity in town because her own mother had died two years previously.
Not only was the demure, well-behaved bluestocking Claudia immediately hailed as the Angel, but Augusta herself had proved just as successful.
A serious bluestocking in her own right, Aunt Clarissa shared his views on education.
Blott dashed in and listened to General Burnett fulminating from the Grange about blackguards in Whitehall, red tape, green belts and bluestockings, none of which he fully understood.
She was sure that he had had no mistresses who were bluestockings in his previous life--wherever it had been lived.
And if the literary bent of the Villeparisis is the cause of the Lerois' disdain, the disdain of the Lerois does, in its turn, a singular service to the literary bent of the Villeparisis by affording the bluestockings that leisure which the career of letters requires.
Besides, soured bluestockings as they were, seeking by the number and frequency of the drawing-room comedies which they arranged in their houses to give themselves the illusion of a regular salon, there had grown up among them a rivalry which the decay of her fortune in the course of a somewhat tempestuous existence reduced for each of them, when it was a question of securing the kind assistance of a professional actor or actress, into a sort of struggle for life.
Why, she’s no more than a bluestocking and everyone knows what men think of bluestockings.
Woods and bluestockings, he said, exercised a lowering effect upon his spirits.
Of all the strange things in 17th-century Germany, perhaps the strangest for her had been discovering a Lutheran abbess, governing an institute of noble bluestockings who took no religious vows.