basque

Borrowed from French basque.

• IPA^(key): /bæsk/, /bɑːsk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophones: bask, Basque
• Rhymes: -æsk, -ɑːsk

basque (plural basques)

1. The part of a waistcoat etc. extending below the waist.
2. A woman's close-fitting bodice, underbodice, or corset having such a feature.
   • 2025 August 30, Jo Ellison, “Taylor Swift is entering her conservative era”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 20:

     Will she be able to pull off the double act? Can she play the cosy tradwife and still be the sexpot in a basque?

• saut de basque
• basquine
• vasquine

• IPA^(key): /bask/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Inherited from Old French baste, probably borrowed from Provençal or Occitan basto, from Frankish *bastijan (“to weave, plait, sew”).^[1] But others suggest it was named after the fashion of the Basques,^[2][3] the same as basquine^[4][5][6] and Spanish basquiña.^[7]

basque f (plural basques)

1. skirt, skirts (of a jacket, morning coat etc.); basque (of waistcoat)
2. (figurative) coattail This term needs a translation to English (as in: * coller aux basques

• lâcher les basques). Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

1. • 2015 January, Virginie Despentes, Vernon Subutex, volume 1, Éditions Grasset, →ISBN, page 15:

     Il n'était pas fidèle, et elles se suspendaient d’autant plus facilement à ses basques que lui ne pensait qu’à se défiler.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• coller aux basques
• lâcher les basques

This form is inherited from Middle French and took precedence in the mid 15th century.^[8] Derived from Latin Vascō, singular form of the plural noun Vascones (see there for more).

The transition of the initial -v- to -b- indicates a likely loan from Spanish or Occitan. Old French forms included bascle, and Old Provençal (Occitan), bascon, basclon.^[9] Medieval Latin had the plurals bascli, basculi,^[10] and basclos, basculos, but also basclones, basculones, while Renaissance Latin used Basculus among other names.^[11] The latinate forms with a v have remained in use too. Doublet of gascon and Vascon, from the accusative form Vasconem. A connection to the family of Basque euskal, euskara is uncertain.

basque m (uncountable)

1. Basque (language)

basque (plural basques)

1. Basque

• Pays basque
• pelote basque
• tour de basque
• courir comme un basque
• tambour de basque

• → English: Basque
  • → Welsh: Basg
• → Romanian: basc
• ⇒ Irish: Bascach, Bascais

• bascle,^[1] basclois^[2] [12th-14th century]. Compare Anglo-Norman bascle, baskle^[3] [13th–14th centuries]
• Bascon, Bascot.^[2] Compare Middle English Baskone, basclon.^[4] [15th century]
• Basquain, Bisquain, Bizquain.^[5] Compare French biscaïen, biscayne, and Middle English Bisker.^[4]

See above.

basque m (plural basques)

1. Basque (language)
2. Basque (person)
3. (historical) biscaïen or biscayne, a person or a thing related to the region of Biscay or the city Bayonne

• Cantaber