word of the day: buckram

The word of the day is buckram:

Etymology:  Found in most of the European languages between 12th and 15th cents...

 

1. A kind of fine linen or cotton fabric. Obs. 

2.a. A kind of coarse linen or cloth stiffened with gum or paste. men in buckram: sometimes proverbially for non-existent persons, in allusion to Falstaff's ‘four rogues in buckram’ (quot. 1598).

b. A lawyer's bag; = buckram-bag n. at Compounds 2. Obs. 

3. fig. Stiffness; a stiff and starched manner; that which gives a man a stiff exterior. 

4.a. Of buckram, like buckram. 

b. fig. Stiff, ‘starched’, ‘stuck up’; that has a false appearance of strength. (OED)

"I remember the day that this teacher handed me the jacketless hardback of 'The Charioteer', with its dark-gray buckram boards."

 - Daniel Mendelsohn, "The American boy: a famous author, a young reader, and a life-changing correspondence", 7 January 2013 The New Yorker