masque

See also: masqué

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French masque.

Pronunciation

• (General American, UK) IPA^(key): /mæsk/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɑːsk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æsk, -ɑːsk
• Homophones: mask, masc (some accents)

Noun

masque (plural masques)

1. (historical, in 16th- and 17th-century England and Europe) A dramatic performance, often performed at court as a royal entertainment, consisting of dancing, dialogue, pantomime and song.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 221:

     "I think," said Anne to Madame de Mercœur, "we must obtain your protégée's services for our intended masque; however, I shall leave that to you young people to settle," turning to Louis as she spoke.

2. Words and music written for a masque.
   • 2010 April 9, Glyn Maxwell, “WH Auden's ‘The Age of Anxiety’”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Over six sections – a prologue, a life-story, a dream-quest, a dirge, a masque and an epilogue – they meditate on their lives, their hopes, their losses, and on the human condition.

3. A masquerade.
   • 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 184:

     The game of pretence is enhanced by dressing-up, and it is natural for a child to copy some grown-up hero. The game was also played by all those people who have attended masques and fancy-dress parties and by Marie-Antoinette when she played at being a milkmaid, it is only the fashion which had altered.

4. Obsolete form of mask.
5. A facial mask.

   mud masque; clay masque

Verb

masque (third-person singular simple present masques, present participle masquing, simple past and past participle masqued)

1. Archaic form of mask.
   • 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 16, in Billy Budd‎^[2], London: Constable & Co.:

     It is even masqued by that sort of good-humoured air that at heart he resents his impressment.

Further reading

• masque on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• squame

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian maschera. More at English mask.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mask/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

masque m (plural masques)

1. mask (a cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection)
2. Short for masque de grossesse.

Derived terms

• bas les masques
• masque à gaz
• masque à oxygène
• masque-cheval
• masque chirurgical
• masque de grossesse
• masque de plongée
• masque de nuit

Related terms

• démasquer
• masquer

Descendants

• → Czech: maska
• → Danish: maske
• → English: masque
• → German: Maske
  • → Hungarian: maszk
• → Hunsrik: Mask
• → Macedonian: маска (maska)
• → Mongolian: маск (mask)
• → Norwegian: maske
• → Persian: ماسک (mâsk)
• → Polish: maska
• → Romanian: mască
• → Russian: маска (maska)
  • → Armenian: մասկա (maska)
  • → Georgian: მასკა (masḳa)
  • → Kazakh: маска (maska)
• → Serbo-Croatian: maska / маска
• → Swedish: mask
• → Turkish: maske

Verb

masque

1. inflection of masquer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “masque”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Verb

masque

1. inflection of mascar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Middle French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian maschera.

Noun

masque m (plural masques)

1. mask (covering for the face)

Descendants

• French: masque (see there for further descendants)
• → English: mask

Portuguese

Verb

masque

1. inflection of mascar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Verb

masque

1. inflection of mascar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative