mazard

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmæzə(ɹ)d/
• Rhymes: -æzə(ɹ)d

Etymology 1

Probably from mazer, the head being compared to a large goblet.

Alternative forms

• mazzard

Noun

mazard (plural mazards)

1. (archaic slang) Head; skull.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 277:

     Why ee'n ſo: and now my Lady Wormes, / Chapleſſe, and knockt about the Mazard with a Sextons Spade;

   • 1808, Richard Graves, The Spiritual Quixote, page 127:

     This roused the tinker's choler, already provoked at Tugwell's amorous freedom with his doxy, and he gave him a click in the mazard. Tugwell had not been used tamely to receive a kick or a cuff; he, therefore, gave the tinker a rejoinder, […]

   • 1906, Ambrose Bierce, “Iconoclast”, in The Cynic’s Word Book, London: Arthur F. Bird […], →OCLC, page 170:

     For the poor things [worshippers] would have other idols in place of those he [the iconoclast] thwacketh upon the mazzard and dispelleth.

Etymology 2

Compare French merise (“wild cherry”).

Noun

mazard (plural mazards)

1. A kind of small black cherry.

See also

• mazzard