fusome

English

Etymology 1

Alternative form of fulsome

Adjective

fusome (comparative more fusome, superlative most fusome)

1. (Scotland) Alternative form of fulsome; offensive; loathsome.
   • 1799, Robert Fergusson, Poems on various subjects, page 113:

     While glakit fools, owr rife o' cash, Pamper their weyms wi' fusome trash, I think a chiel may gayly pass;

   • 1825, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Lochandhu: A Tale of the Eighteenth Century, page 63:

     Waes me! waes me! siccan a fusome sight as I am.

   • 1851, Edwin Paxton Hood, Genius & Industry: The Achievements of Mind Among the Cottages, page 111:

     Out, fie, the fusome carlie! The ill contriving carlie!

   • 1859, Child, English and Scottish Ballads - Volume 8, page 142:

     And ye be gaun to court a wife, ye do tell to me, ' Tis ye sall hae my Fusome Fug, Your ae wife for to be, be, Your ae wife for to be.

Etymology 2

From Middle English *fussom, equivalent to fouse (“eager, ready, brave, noble”) +‎ -some.

Alternative forms

• fusom, fusum, feusome, fewsome

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfjuːsəm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

fusome (comparative more fusome, superlative most fusome)

1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) Handy, deft-handed, workmanlike.
   • 1785, Tim Bobbin, The Lancashire Dialect: Containing the Adventures and Misfortunes of a Lancashire Clown:

     What pleas'd him best, the warmed up some keal, And RALF dud mak a varra fusome meal,

   • 1840, Ann Wheeler, The Westmoreland Dialect in Four Familiar Dialogues, page 48:

     Whya nowt but weel , she seems a varra conny fusom wife, en I hear they hoffer et dea varra weel, en baith draas yaa way, en gitten ther lile farm varra connoly stockt;

2. (UK, dialect, obsolete) Neat; handsome, comely, shapely, attractive.
   • 1867, Eliza Lynn Linton, Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg:

     She was...as douce and fewsome as ony woman's bairn

Etymology 3

From fuse +‎ -ome.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfjuːzəʊm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

fusome (plural fusomes)

1. (biology) A germ cell-specific organelle assembled from membrane skeletal proteins and membranous vesicles.
   • 2004, Daryl S. Henderson, Drosophila Cytogenetics Protocols, page 95:

     Cystoblasts/cystocytes also divide asymmetrically, and in doing so, the spectrosome evolves into a branched fusome in the 16-cell cyst (5,37), accumulating proteins like Bam, ankyrin, α- and β-spectrins, the adducinlike product of the hu-li tai shao gene (HtsF), dynein (Dhc64C), and Cyclin A (5,35,36).

   • 2007, Alvaro Macieira-Coelho, Asymmetric Cell Division, page 105:

     This demonstrates a key role of the fusome as a channel of communication between the cells for the synchronisation and differentiation of the germline cyst.

   • 2007, František Baluška, Dieter Volkmann, Peter W. Barlow, Cell-Cell Channels, page 226:

     F-actin is not detected reliably on the fusome in Drosophila female ovaries, whereas it is a major component of the male fusome.

Related terms

• fusinase
• spectrosome

Anagrams

• fumose