different between buskin vs brodequin

English

Etymology

Apparently from Old French bousequin, variant of brousequin (compare modern French brodequin), probably from Middle Dutch broseken, of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?sk?n/

Noun

buskin (plural buskins)

1. (historical) A half-boot.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.6:

     She, having hong upon a bough on high / Her bow and painted quiver, had unlaste / Her silver buskins from her nimble thigh […]

   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 143:

     With this knife also, he will joynt a Deere, or any beast, shape his shooes, buskins, mantels, etc.

   • 1997, John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium, Penguin 1998, p. 248:

     Alexius was acclaimed with the imperial titles and formally shod with the purple buskins, embroidered in gold with the double-headed eagles of Byzantium [...].

2. (historical) A type of half-boot with a high heel, worn by the ancient Athenian tragic actors.
3. (by extension) Tragic drama; tragedy.
   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, Volume the Second, page 148 ?ISBN

     Such an undertaking by no means benefits the low-heeled buskin of modern fiction.

4. An instrument of torture for the foot; bootikin.

English

Alternative forms

• brodekin

Etymology

From French brodequin.

Noun

brodequin (plural brodequins)

1. (obsolete) A buskin or half-boot.

French

Etymology

Origin uncertain.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b??d.k??/

Noun

brodequin m (plural brodequins)

1. (historical) buskin, half-boot
2. (historical, theater) buskin
3. work boot

Further reading

• “brodequin” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).