buskin

Meanings

1. A soft boot reaching to calf or knee height.
2. A pontifical vestment in the form of a silk stocking, sometimes embroidered or interwoven with gold thread, reaching to the base of the knee and worn over one’s regular socks but under episcopal sandals.
3. A type of soft calf- or knee-high boot that laces up the front, sometimes featuring open toes or thick soles, worn in the Greco-Roman world by hunters and horsemen, as well as by actors in Athenian tragedy.
4. Tragic drama; tragedy.
5. An instrument of torture for the foot; bootikin.

Etymology

Apparently from Old French bousequin, variant of brousequin (compare modern French brodequin), probably from Middle Dutch broseken, of unknown origin.