Nosegay

Nosegay

Nosegay

Sweet smelling flowers, herbs, and perfumes enhanced a person's scent throughout the eighteenth century. The infrequency of bathing made nosegays, or small bouquets, essential for any well-dressed woman. Nosegays could be attached to an outfit or carried. When flowers were pinned or held in small vases at the bustline of a woman's stomacher, the center part of her bodice, they were called bosom flowers or bosom bottles. Real flowers were replaced with rosettes made of perfumed ribbons after about 1750. Nosegays live on into the twenty-first century as the corsages worn for special occasions. ("Corsage" means the bodice of a woman's dress in French. Perhaps nosegays were so often worn attached to the bodice that they came to be called corsages.)

During the eighteenth century, French men began tucking flowers in the buttonholes of their waistcoats and introduced boutonières as fashionable nosegays for men. Boutonières were popular among men at formal affairs into the nineteenth century and continue to be worn into the twenty-first century.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Yarwood, Doreen. The Encyclopedia of World Costume. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.

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"Nosegay." Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Nosegay." Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3425500375.html

"Nosegay." Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. 2004. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3425500375.html

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Nosegay

Nosegay

bunch of fragrant flowers or herbs. See also bouquet.

Examples: nosegay from the drains, 1889; of the elect, 1626; of flowers, 1578; of gold, 1704; of herbs, 1853; of wit and politeness, 1731; of yellow hair.

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"Nosegay." Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms. 1985. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Nosegay." Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms. 1985. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2505301025.html

"Nosegay." Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms. 1985. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2505301025.html

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nosegay

nose·gay / ˈnōzˌgā/ • n. a small bunch of flowers, typically one that is sweet-scented.

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"nosegay." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"nosegay." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-nosegay.html

"nosegay." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-nosegay.html

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nosegay

nosegay •distingué • reggae • Sergei • Tenzing Norgay • nosegay

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"nosegay." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"nosegay." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-nosegay.html

"nosegay." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-nosegay.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Rosie Mason, aged 55, the Royal Nosegay.
Newspaper article from: The Birmingham Post (England); 4/9/2009
A nosegay by an unusual name will still smell sweet.(Neighbor)
Newspaper article from: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL); 4/16/1998
Say it with nosegays.(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: Sunset; 2/1/2001

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