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Webster 1913 Edition

Bluestocking

Blue′stockˊing

,
Noun.
1.
A literary lady; a female pedant.
[Colloq.]
☞ As explained in Boswell’s “Life of Dr. Johnson”, this term is derived from the name given to certain meetings held by ladies, in Johnson's time, for conversation with distinguished literary men. An eminent attendant of these assemblies was a Mr. Stillingfleet, who always wore blue stockings. He was so much distinguished for his conversational powers that his absence at any time was felt to be a great loss, so that the remark became common, “We can do nothing without the blue stockings.” Hence these meetings were sportively called bluestocking clubs, and the ladies who attended them, bluestockings.
2.
(Zool.)
The American avocet (
Recurvirostra Americana
).

Definition 2024

bluestocking

bluestocking

See also: blue-stocking

English

Noun

bluestocking ‎(plural bluestockings)

  1. A scholarly, literary, or cultured woman.
    • 1846, Reynolds, George W.M., The Mysteries of London volume 1, London: George Vickers, page 109:
      But Isabel was no blue-stocking; she was full of vivacity and life, and her conversation was sprightly and agreeable, even when turning upon those serious subjects.
    • 1896, Maurice Walter Keatinge (tr.), The great didactic of John Amos Comenius, London: Adam and Charles Black, translation of Didactica Magna by John Amos Comenius:
      And let none cast in my teeth […] the remark of Hippolytus in Euripides: “I detest a bluestocking. May there never be a woman in my house who knows more than is fitting for a woman to know.”
    • 1907, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “chapter IX”, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 4241346:
      “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”
    • 2001, Allen, Louise Anderson, A Bluestocking in Charleston: The Life and Career of Laura Bragg, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, ISBN 9781570033704, OL 8695302M:
      Bragg was a Massachusetts-born bluestocking, a New Woman of the Progressive Era who changed not only the cultural face of Charleston but also the nation's approach to museum education.
    • 2003 October 5, Allan, Brooke, “The Surveyor of Customs”, in The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331:
      The artist who created strong, passionate, brilliant heroines turns out to have disapproved of bluestockings and refused to educate his own intelligent daughters.
    • 2016 August 14, Douthat, Ross, “A Playboy for President”, in The New York Times:
      "But the cultural conflict between these two post-revolutionary styles — between frat guys and feminist bluestockings, Gamergaters and the diversity police, alt-right provocateurs and 'woke' dudebros, the mouthbreathers who poured hate on the all-female 'Ghostbusters' and the tastemakers who pretended it was good — is likely here to stay."

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