different between busy vs busk

English

Etymology

From Middle English bisy, busie, from Old English bysi?, bisi? (“busy, occupied, diligent”), from Proto-West Germanic *bis?g (“diligent; zealous; busy”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian biesich (“active, diligent, hard-working, industrious”), Dutch bezig (“busy”), Low German besig (“busy”), Old Frisian bisgia (“to use”), Old English bisgian (“to occupy, employ, trouble, afflict”). The spelling with ?u? represents the pronunciation of the West Midland and Southern dialects while the Modern English pronunciation with /?/ is from the dialects of the East Midlands.

Pronunciation

• enPR: b?z'i, IPA^(key): /?b?zi/
• Rhymes: -?zi
• Hyphenation: bus?y

Adjective

busy (comparative busier, superlative busiest)

1. Crowded with business or activities; having a great deal going on.
   • 1843 — Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol.

     Although they had but that moment left the school behind them, they were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city, where shadowy passengers passed and repassed; where shadowy carts and coaches battled for the way, and all the strife and tumult of a real city were.

     They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, where Scrooge had never penetrated before, although he recognised its situation, and its bad repute.

2. Engaged in activity or by someone else.
   • 1719 — Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe.

     And the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity of provisions, being the stores for our voyage; and intended in a week or a fortnight’s time to open the dock, and launch out our boat. I was busy one morning upon something of this kind, when I called to Friday, and bid him to go to the sea-shore and see if he could find a turtle or a tortoise, a thing which we generally got once a week, for the sake of the eggs as well as the flesh.

     But to return to Friday; he was so busy about his father that I could not find in my heart to take him off for some time; but after I thought he could leave him a little, I called him to me, and he came jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest extreme: then I asked him if he had given his father any bread.

   • 1813 — Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.

     After walking several miles in a leisurely manner, and too busy to know anything about it, they found at last, on examining their watches, that it was time to be at home.

   • 1843 — Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol.

     His hands were busy with his garments all this time; turning them inside out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making them parties to every kind of extravagance.
3. Having a lot going on; complicated or intricate.

4. Officious; meddling.
   • 1603, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice, IV. ii. 130:

     I will be hanged if some eternal villain, / Some busy and insinuating rogue, / Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, / Have not devised this slander; I'll be hanged else.

Synonyms

• swamped

Related terms

• busy as a beaver
• busy as a bee
• busybody
• busyness
• busy work

Translations

Verb

busy (third-person singular simple present busies, present participle busying, simple past and past participle busied)

1. (transitive) To make somebody busy or active; to occupy.
   • On my vacation I'll busy myself with gardening.
2. (transitive) To rush somebody. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• bebusy
• forebusy
• overbusy
• unbusy

Translations

Noun

busy (plural busies)

1. (slang, Britain, Liverpudlian, derogatory) A police officer.

References

Anagrams

• buys

Middle English

Adjective

busy

1. Alternative form of bisy

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?sk/
• Rhymes: -?sk

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French busc, by dissimilation (from buste) from Italian busto. Doublet of bust.

Noun

busk (plural busks)

1. A strip of metal, whalebone, wood, or other material, worn in the front of a corset to stiffen it.
   • 1598, John Marston, The Scourge of Villanie

     Her long slit sleeves, stiffe buske, puffe verdingall, / Is all that makes her thus angelicall.

2. (by extension) A corset.
   • 1661, John Donne, "To his Mistress going to Bed":

     Off with that happy busk, which I envie, / That still can be, and still can stand so nigh.

Translations

Etymology 2

Etymology unknown

Noun

busk

1. (obsolete) A kind of linen.
   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 4, p. 557:

     Busk, a kind of table linen, occurs first in 1458, and occasionally afterwards.

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English busken, from Old Norse búask

Verb

busk (third-person singular simple present busks, present participle busking, simple past and past participle busked)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To prepare; to make ready; to array; to dress.
   • c. 1724, William Hamilton, The Braes of Yarrow 2

     Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny, bonny bride.

   • The watch stert up and drew their weapons bright / And busk'd them bold to battle and to fight.

2. (obsolete) To go; to direct one's course.
   • c. 1550, John Skelton, Skelton Laureate against the Scottes

     Ye might have busked you to Huntly-banks.

Etymology 4

Apparently from French busquer or Spanish buscar.

Verb

busk (third-person singular simple present busks, present participle busking, simple past and past participle busked)

1. (intransitive) To solicit money by entertaining the public in the street or in public transport.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To sell articles such as obscene books in public houses etc.
   • 1827, Robert Pollok, The Course of Time

     The frothy orator, who busked his tales
     In quackish pomp of noisy words

3. (nautical) To tack, cruise about.

Related terms

• busker

Translations

Anagrams

• Buks, skub

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse buskr, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz.

Noun

busk c (singular definite busken, plural indefinite buske)

1. bush

Declension

References

• “busk” in Den Danske Ordbog

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse buskr, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz. Compare with Danish busk, Swedish buske, Icelandic búskur, English bush, Dutch bos, German Busch.

Noun

busk m (definite singular busken, indefinite plural busker, definite plural buskene)

1. a bush or shrub

Derived terms

• kaffebusk
• solbærbusk

References

• “busk” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse buskr, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz. See above for comparisons,

Noun

busk m (definite singular busken, indefinite plural buskar, definite plural buskane)

1. a bush or shrub

Derived terms

• solbærbusk

References

• “busk” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *busk, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz, probably from Proto-Indo-European *b?uH- (“to grow”). Compare Old Saxon busk, Old English busc, bysc, Old Norse buskr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bus?k/

Noun

busk m

1. bush

Descendants

• Middle High German: busch, bosch
  • German: Busch

Yola

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

busk (plural buskès)

1. a thick, small cake made of white meal, spiced bread

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN