masque

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See also: masqué

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French masque.

Pronunciation

Noun

masque (plural masques)

  1. (historical, in 16th- and 17th-century England and Europe) A dramatic performance, often performed at court as a royal entertainment, consisting of dancing, dialogue, pantomime and song.
    • 1834, L E L, chapter XIX, in Francesca Carrara. , volume I, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 221:
      "I think," said Anne to Madame de Mercœur, "we must obtain your protégée's services for our intended masque; however, I shall leave that to you young people to settle," turning to Louis as she spoke.
  2. Words and music written for a masque.
    • 2010 April 9, Glyn Maxwell, “WH Auden's ‘The Age of Anxiety’”, in The Guardian‎:
      Over six sections – a prologue, a life-story, a dream-quest, a dirge, a masque and an epilogue – they meditate on their lives, their hopes, their losses, and on the human condition.
  3. A masquerade.
    • 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 184:
      The game of pretence is enhanced by dressing-up, and it is natural for a child to copy some grown-up hero. The game was also played by all those people who have attended masques and fancy-dress parties and by Marie-Antoinette when she played at being a milkmaid, it is only the fashion which had altered.
  4. Obsolete form of mask.
  5. A facial mask.
    mud masque; clay masque

Verb

masque (third-person singular simple present masques, present participle masquing, simple past and past participle masqued)

  1. Archaic form of mask.
    • 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 16, in Billy Budd‎, London: Constable & Co.:
      It is even masqued by that sort of good-humoured air that at heart he resents his impressment.

Further reading

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian maschera. More at English mask.

Pronunciation

Noun

masque m (plural masques)

  1. mask (a cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection)
  2. Short for masque de grossesse.

Derived terms

Descendants

Verb

masque

  1. inflection of masquer:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

Galician

Verb

masque

  1. inflection of mascar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Middle French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian maschera.[1]

Noun

masque m (plural masques)

  1. mask (covering for the face)

Descendants

  • French: masque (see there for further descendants)
  • → English: mask

References

  1. ^ Etymology and history of “masque”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Portuguese

Verb

masque

  1. inflection of mascar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Verb

masque

  1. inflection of mascar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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