Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun See
steenkirk .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Same as
steenkirk .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A kind of
neckcloth worn in a loose and disorderly fashion.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
So called from the battle of Steinkirk, in 1692, on which occasion the French nobles had no time to arrange their lace neckcloths.
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Examples
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The trader wore his great wig, his ancient steinkirk of tawdry lace, his high boots of Spanish leather, cracked and stained.
Audrey Mary Johnston 1903
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She felt safe the moment that she was perched on the arm of her grandfather's chair, her soft clasp about his stiff old neck, her tears flowing over her cheeks, all pink anew, escaping upon his wrinkled, bloodless, pale visage and taking all the starch out of his old-fashioned steinkirk.
The Frontiersmen Mary Noailles Murfree 1886
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Bigot glanced admiringly at her slightly flushed cheek and dainty fingers as she tied the loose ends of his rich steinkirk together.
The Golden Dog William Kirby 1861
ruzuzu commented on the word steinkirk
"The comedy The Careless Husband (1704), generally considered to be Colley Cibber's best play, is another example of the retrieval of a straying husband by means of outstanding wifely tact, this time in a more domestic and genteel register. The easy-going Sir Charles Easy is chronically unfaithful to his wife, seducing both ladies of quality and his own female servants with insouciant charm. The turning point of the action, known as 'the Steinkirk scene', comes when his wife finds him and a maidservant asleep together in a chair, 'as close an approximation to actual adultery as could be presented on the 18th-century stage'. His periwig has fallen off, an obvious suggestion of intimacy and abandon, and an opening for Lady Easy's tact. Soliloquizing to herself about how sad it would be if he caught cold, she 'takes a Steinkirk off her Neck, and lays it gently on his Head' (V.i.21). (A 'steinkirk' was a loosely tied lace collar or scarf, named after the way the officers wore their cravats at the Battle of Steenkirk in 1692.) She steals away, Sir Charles wakes, notices the steinkirk on his head, marvels that his wife did not wake him and make a scene, and realises how wonderful she is."
--from Wikipedia's Colley Cibber page
September 26, 2011
sionnach commented on the word steinkirk
This is disturbing. Rilly.
September 27, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word steinkirk
I know, right? Did you read the next part on Wikipedia? Apparently the Easys "go on to have a reconciliation scene which is much more low-keyed and tasteful than that in Love's Last Shift, without kneelings and risings, and with Lady Easy shrinking with feminine delicacy from the coarse subjects that Amanda had broached without blinking."
September 27, 2011
sionnach commented on the word steinkirk
Lady E. should have just split, saying "Like his breakfast eggs, I'm over Easy".
har-de-har-har.
September 27, 2011
bilby commented on the word steinkirk
Obviously it was difficult being a woman of Easy virtue in those days, even without kneelings and risings.
September 28, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word steinkirk
That's easy for you to say.
September 28, 2011
bilby commented on the word steinkirk
Same as steenkirk.
September 28, 2011