masker
/ˈmæskə(ɹ)/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.75 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
One who wears a mask; one who appears in disguise at a masquerade or wears a mask in a ritual.
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "To masker their troubled heads the more, hee assaileth them with a great shout and maine violence."
- "He is so, for he is not one that sets forth to the wars with great resolutions and hopes, and returns with maskered fears, and despairs; neither is he like those that take more care, and are more industrious to get gay clothes, and fine feathers, [...]"
- "But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture; for the night is waning away […]."
- "Like the men's society, the corporate consciousness of women and their respected place in the political body is represented by a masked spirit. This sowei (masker), like all the officials of the society, represents the corporate body of women and retains the authority to levy fines and punish women and men or the community as a whole. The ndoli Jowei (dancing sowei) is a masker whose figure is completely covered with black raffia, topped by the sowei mask."
Etymology
From Middle English *maskeren, malskren (“to bewilder”) (compare Middle English bimalscren (“to bewitch”)), from Old English *malscrian (attested in derivative malscrung (“enchantment, charm”)), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *malskaz (“haughty”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- (“to beat, crush, grind”). Cognate with Middle Dutch malsch (“headstrong, zealous”). More at mask.