bluestocking

Dictionary: blue·stock·ing (blū'stŏk'ĭng) pronunciation

n.
A woman with strong scholarly or literary interests.

[After the Blue Stocking Society, a nickname for a predominantly female literary club of 18th-century London.]

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Bluestocking

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In mid-18th-century England, any of a group of women who met to discuss literature. Attempting to replace the playing of cards and such social activities with more intellectual pursuits, they held "conversations" to which they invited men of letters and members of the aristocracy with literary interests. The term probably originated when Mrs. Elizabeth Vesey invited the learned Benjamin Stillingfleet to one of her parties; he declined, saying he lacked appropriate dress, until she told him to come "in his blue stockings" — the ordinary worsted stockings he was wearing at the time. The word bluestocking came to be applied derisively to a woman who affects literary or learned interests.

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Columbia Encyclopedia: bluestocking

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bluestocking, derisive term originally applied to certain 18th-century women with pronounced literary interests. During the 1750s, Elizabeth Vesey held evening parties, at which the entertainment consisted of conversation on literary subjects. Eminent men of the day were invited to contribute to these conversations. Hannah More, Elizabeth Montagu, and Elizabeth Carter, among others, continued this tradition. Boswell, in his Life of Dr. Johnson, states that these "bluestocking clubs" were so named because of Benjamin Stillingfleet, who attended in unconventional blue worsted stockings rather than the customary black silk stockings. In time the name bluestocking was applied solely to women of pedantic literary tastes.

Word Tutor: bluestocking

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IN BRIEF: n. - A woman having literary or intellectual interests.

Tutor's tip: A "blue stocking" is a stocking that is blue, while a "bluestocking" is a pedantic woman.

Translations: Bluestocking

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - blåstrømpe, kvindelig intellektuel

Nederlands (Dutch)
blauwkous

Français (French)
n. - (fig) bas-bleu

Deutsch (German)
n. - Blaustrumpf

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (καθομ.) (ψευτο)διανοούμενη, κουλτουριάρα

Italiano (Italian)
donna intellettuale, avocetta

Português (Portuguese)
n. - sabichona (f) (coloq.)

Русский (Russian)
образованная женщина

Español (Spanish)
n. - literata, marisabidilla

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - blåstrumpa

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
女学者, 装做有学问的女人

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 女學者, 裝做有學問的女人

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 여류문학자

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 才女, 女流文学者

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) امرأة رفيعه التعليم‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮משכילה, אינטליגנטית‬

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	bluestockingism
	basbleu
	Elizabeth Carter (English poet & linguist)

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		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more
		Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved. eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial. Read more
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