kickshaw
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle French quelque chose (“something”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]kickshaw (plural kickshaws)
- A dainty or delicacy.
- c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 96, column 1:
- Some Pigeons Davy, a couple of ſhort-legg'd Hennes: a / ioynt of Mutton, and any pretty little tine Kickſhawes, / tell William Cooke.
- 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts, page 39:
- Allow me now to recommend this dish— / A simple kickshaw by your Persian cook, / Such as is served at the great King’s second table.
- 1886, William Carew Hazlitt, “The Early Englishman and His Food”, in Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine, published 1902:
- The "Penny Magazine" for 1842 has a good and suggestive paper on "Feasts and Entertainments," with extracts from some of the early dramatists and a woodcut of "a new French cook, to devise fine kickshaws and toys."
- 1923, Walter de la Mare, Seaton's Aunt:
- The lunch […] consisted […] of […] lobster mayonnaise, cold game sausages, an immense veal and ham pie farced with eggs, truffles, and numberless delicious flavours; besides kickshaws, creams and sweetmeats.
- A trinket or gewgaw.
- c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 257, column 1:
- Art thou good at theſe kicke-chawſes Knight?
Further reading
[edit]- “kickshaw”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.