bluestocking
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈbluːˌstɑːkɪŋ/
- Offensive
:
[término ofensivo para mujer intelectual]
- In the 18th century, a bluestocking was often seen as a woman too focused on her studies to fit traditional roles.
Examples
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The late Sylvia Harcstark Myers's The Bluestocking Circle: Women, Friendship, and the Life of the Mind in Eighteenth-Century England centers on the Bluestocking Circle between 1740 and 1800 through an analysis of the lives and works of the women who made up the group.
Academic text (1991) -
With her newfound friends, a group of drab, bluestocking creatures destined for the shelf, she is devising a plan to obtain what she wants most in life.
Fiction book (2001) -
In Spain, we hear the queen is a bluestocking who cares more for learning than she does for love.
-
Mary is a bluestocking; any man who tries to seduce her will die of boredom.
Fiction book (1995) -
When faced with a simpleton and a bluestocking, Otavio ultimately feels more kindly disposed toward the former.
Academic text (2000) -
Rosemary was a bluestocking, distressingly forthright, and totally lacking in feminine wiles and vanity.
Fiction book (1991) -
She's sure she's not the girl for him; bluestockings, apparently, in Tessa's world, can't manage being duchesses.
Blog text (7) -
The late Sylvia Harcstark Myers's The Bluestocking Circle: Women, Friendship, and the Life of the Mind in Eighteenth-Century England centers on the Bluestocking Circle between 1740 and 1800 through an analysis of the lives and works of the women who made up the group.
Academic text (1991) -
When this failed to impress them, I passed along Mario Vargas Llosa's contention that those who don't read are bad in bed, as if everyone didn't know that quantity matters more than quality and no one sees less action than a bluestocking.
Academic text (2007) -
She was considered a bluestocking for her extensive library and passion for philosophical debates.
Synonyms
Compounds
- Archaic
A reputation for being well educated and interested in books and ideas
- Archaic
A group of educated women who meet to talk about books and ideas, often in the 18th and 19th centuries
How Intellectual
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Bluestocking comes from 18th-century meetings where people gathered to talk about 'books and ideas' and a man who often came wore plain blue stockings instead of formal socks. That's why bluestocking came to mean a woman who loves learning and books, and it was sometimes used as a negative word for a woman 'not seen as feminine'.