Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A housewife.
- noun Same as
hussy .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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By the way, “hussy” comes from archaic English “housewife” at the time pronounced “hussif”.
Regretsy – Regrebay 2010
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I shall not write to mother and sisters to say we be married, as I said I would do; and I shan't finish the good-hussif 'I cut out and meant to make while we were in lodgings.'
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I shall not write to mother and sisters to say we be married, as I said I would do; and I shan't finish the good-hussif '
Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy 1884
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Trangia, hussif and all and all nicely packed up in my Cyclops Roc.
Army Rumour Service 2010
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Trangia, hussif and all and all nicely packed up in my Cyclops Roc.
Army Rumour Service 2010
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Trangia, hussif and all and all nicely packed up in my Cyclops Roc.
Army Rumour Service 2010
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The guidebook has a section on "Housewifery" which reads, "Every Girl Scout is as much a ‘hussif 'as she is a girl.
"Make It Yourself": Home Sewing, Gender, and Culture, 1890-1930 2006
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a rather decrepit hussif and a hank of strong linen thread.
A Mating in the Wilds Ottwell Binns
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a shabby little hussif, containing a thimble, scissors, needles and some skeins of unbleached thread.
The Wings of the Morning Louis Tracy 1895
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Spare yourself the misery of discovering in the hearty, fleshy Lincolnshire hussif the decay of the promises of years ago; be content to do reverence to the ideal Fiammetta who has built her little shrine in your sympathetic heart! "
chained_bear commented on the word hussif
"One of the buttons was loose. He took the hussif out of his kit, threaded a needle without squinting, and whipped the button tightly to the coat."
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 633
December 17, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word hussif
"... a clever arrangement of compartments that held handy his shot pouch, powder horn, a spare knife, a coil of fishing line, a roll of twine for a snare, a hussif with pins, needles, and thread...."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 180
I'm guessing that this word is a corruption of housewife, which was a slang-ish historical term for a portable sewing kit, especially one that men (e.g. soldiers, travelers, etc.) carried.
January 30, 2010