buckle
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbʌkəl/
ipa: [ˈbʌkɫ̩]
homophone: buccal
rhymes: -ʌkəl
Forms: form: buckles
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English bokel (“spiked metal ring for fastening; ornamental clasp; boss of a shield; a shield, buckler; (figurative) means of defence”) [and other forms], from Old French boucle, bocle (“spiked metal ring for fastening; boss of a shield; a shield”) [and other forms], from Latin buccula (“cheek strap of a helmet; boss of a shield”) (from bucca (“soft part of the cheek”)).
Noun sense 2 (“great conflict or struggle”) is probably derived from verb sense 1.2.1 (“to apply (oneself) to, or prepare (oneself) for, a task or work”).
The verb is derived from Middle English bokelen, bukelen (“to fasten (something) with a buckle or clasp; to fasten, make fast; to wrap; to arch the body”) [and other forms], from bokel (noun) (see above) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).
In verb sense 1.2.1, the sense “to apply (oneself) to, or prepare (oneself) for, a task or work” was derived from the now obsolete sense “to equip (oneself) for a battle, etc.”, and originally alluded to armour being buckled on to the body.
Senses: examples: text: Svveet Hellen I muſt vvoe you, / To helpe vn-arme our Hector: his ſtubborne bucles / VVith this your vvhite enchaunting fingers touch; / Shall more obey then to the edge of ſteele, / Or force of Greekiſh ſinevves: […]
ref: c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], signature F, verso:
text: Tongue of my shoe-buckle broke. […] Bought a new head to my cane, and a tongue to my buckle. Drank a glass of purl to recover appetite.
ref: 1712 March 15 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “TUESDAY, March 4, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 317; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume IV, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, pages 86–87:
text: My uncle furthermore remarked that it wore high heeled shoes, after an ancient fashion, with paste or diamond buckles, that sparkled as though they were alive.
ref: 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Adventure of My Uncle”, in Tales of a Traveller, part 1 (Strange Stories. […]), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC, page 31:
glosses: A metal clasp with a hinged tongue or a spike through which a belt or strap is passed and penetrated by the tongue or spike, in order to fasten the ends of the belt together or to secure the strap to something else.
examples: text: He must be forging the buckle-screw, sir, now. […] Carpenter, when he's through with that buckle, tell him to forge a pair of steel shoulder-blades; there's a pedlar aboard with a crushing pack.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Ahab and the Carpenter”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, pages 522–523:
glosses: A metal clasp with a hinged tongue or a spike through which a belt or strap is passed and penetrated by the tongue or spike, in order to fasten the ends of the belt together or to secure the strap to something else.
Some other form of clasp used to fasten two things together.
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: A metal clasp with a hinged tongue or a spike through which a belt or strap is passed and penetrated by the tongue or spike, in order to fasten the ends of the belt together or to secure the strap to something else.
An image of a clasp (sense 1) used as the brisure of an eighth daughter.
glosses: A great conflict or struggle.
Derived terms: belt buckle
bread buckle
buckleless
cover the buckle
kneebuckle
scleral buckle
swash someone's buckle
turnbuckle