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Chambers (1908)

Mask

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[Fr. masque—Sp. mascara—Ar. maskharat, a jester, man in masquerade.]

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The complete extracted entry

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Mask, Masque, mask, n. anything disguising or concealing the face: anything that disguises: a pretence: a masquerade: a former kind of dramatic spectacle, in which actors personified mythological deities, shepherdesses, &c.: a representation or impression of a face in any material, as in marble, plaster, &c.: a fox's head.—v.t. to cover the face with a mask: to hide.—v.i. to join in a mask or masquerade: to be disguised in any way: to revel.—n. Mas′caron (archit.), a grotesque face on door-knockers, spouts, &c.—adj. Masked, wearing a mask, concealed.—ns. Masked′-ball, a ball in which the dancers wear masks; Mask′er, one who wears a mask.—Masked battery (see Battery). [Fr. masque—Sp. mascara—Ar. maskharat, a jester, man in masquerade.]

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  • Historical scholarship from 1908; not current consensus or editorial verification.
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  • Chambers consulted earlier dictionaries including Skeat and the New English Dictionary; overlapping claims are not independent scholarly votes.

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Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

Publisher marks these historical texts public domain in the USA. Transformed book text excludes Gutenberg branding; source attribution is a bibliographic acknowledgment. No non-US public-domain determination is made.

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