masque

Unadapted borrowing from French masque. Doublet of mask and mesh.

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

• Audio (General American):

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• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɑːsk/
• Rhymes: -æsk, -ɑːsk
• Homophones: mask, masc (some accents)

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 spelling of mask.
5. A facial mask.

   mud masque; clay masque

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

1. Archaic spelling 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.

• masque on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• squame

Borrowed from Italian maschera. More at English mask.

• IPA^(key): /mask/

• Audio:

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• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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masque m (plural masques)

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

• démasquer
• masquer

masque

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

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

masque

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

Borrowed from Italian maschera.^[1]

masque m (plural masques)

1. mask (covering for the face)

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

masque

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

masque

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