farthingale
/ˈfɑɹðɪŋɡeɪl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.49 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "women […] make trunk-sleeves of wyre and whale-bone bodies, backes of lathes, and stiffe bumbasted verdugals, and to the open-view of all men paint and embellish themselves with counterfeit and borrowed beauties[…]."
- "As I entered the room, the fire from the large square stove, where the logs were burning lustily, threw a red, flickering light through the wide-open door over the room, which was very deep, and furnished in the old style with high-backed Russia leather chairs, and one of those settees which were intended for farthingales and straight up-and-down positions."
- "Duchess Meg soon forgot this unworthy wedding-gift, such was her rapture in the other, the so august, appurtenances of her new life. What with her fine silk gowns and farthingales, and her powder-closet, and the canopied bed she slept in—a bed bigger far than the room she had slept in with her sisters, and standing in a room far bigger than her father’s cottage [...]"
- "In Henry VIII's Great Hall, there were men in doublets and codpieces prancing up and down with women in farthingales."
Etymology
Hobson-Jobson of earlier forms vardingale, etc., borrowed from Middle French verdugale, from Spanish verdugado, from verdugo (“rod”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈfɑɹðɪŋɡeɪl/
- British English: /ˈfɑːðɪŋɡeɪl/