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buckram

 
Dictionary: buck·ram   (bŭk'rəm) pronunciation
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n.
  1. A coarse cotton fabric heavily sized with glue, used for stiffening garments and in bookbinding.
  2. Archaic. Rigid formality.
adj.
Resembling or suggesting buckram, as in stiffness or formality: "a wondrous buckram style" (Thomas Carlyle).

tr.v., -ramed, -ram·ing, -rams.
To stiffen with or as if with buckram.

[Middle English bukeram, fine linen, from Old French boquerant and from Old Italian bucherame, both after Bukhara (Bukhoro), from which fine linen was once imported.]


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Wordsmith Words: buckram
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(BUK-ruhm)

noun
1. A stiff cotton fabric used in interlining garments, in bookbinding, etc.
2. Stiffness; formality.

verb tr.
1. To strengthen with buckram.
2. To give a false appearance of strength, importance, etc.

Etymology
Of uncertain origin. Perhaps after Bukhara, Uzbekistan, a city noted for textiles

Usage
"Dick and his father were henceforth on terms of coldness. The upright old gentleman grew more upright when he met his son, buckramed with immortal anger." — Robert Louis Stevenson; The Story of a Lie; 1879.

Thesaurus: buckram
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adjective

    So rigidly constrained, formal, or awkward as to lack all grace and spontaneity: starchy, stiff, stilted, wooden. See flexible/rigid.

Word Tutor: buckram
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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: A course, stiff material used to bind books.

pronunciation The buckram was frayed on the antique volume.

Wikipedia: Buckram
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This article is about the cloth. For Buckrams (Allium ursinum), see Ramsons.
Buckram is available in many colors.

Buckram is a stiff cloth, made of cotton, and still occasionally linen, which is used to cover and protect books. Buckram can also be used to stiffen clothes. Modern buckrams have been stiffened by soaking in a substance, usually now pyroxylin, to fill the gaps between the fibres[1].

Buckram can be dull or shiny.

In the Middle Ages, "bokeram" was fine cotton cloth, not stiff. The etymology of the term is uncertain; the commonly mentioned derivation from Bokhara[2] is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, uncertain.

Millinery buckram is different from bookbinding buckram. It is impregnated with a starch, which allows it to be softened in water, pulled over a hat block, and left to dry into a hard shape. White buckram is most commonly used in hatmaking, though black is available as well. Millinery buckram comes in three weights: baby buckram (often used for children's and dolls' hats), single-ply buckram, and double buckram (also known as "theatrical crown").

References

  1. ^ "Buckram". BBC h2g2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A261055. Retrieved on 2008-03-21. 
  2. ^ Donald King in Jonathan Alexander & Paul Binski (eds), Age of Chivalry, Art in Plantagenet England, 1200-1400, p157, Royal Academy/Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1987

See also

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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
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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
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