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3001 entries found
businesslike (adj.)
"methodical and thorough, such as ought to prevail in doing business," 1791, from business + like (adj.).
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businessman (n.)
also business-man, 1826, from business + man (n.). Man of business is recorded from 1660s. Business-woman is from 1844 (as woman of business 1838).
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busing (n.)
1888, "traveling by omnibus," verbal noun from bus (v.)). From 1965 as "forced integration of schools by transporting children to different areas."
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busk (v.)
c. 1300, "to prepare, to dress oneself," also "to go, set out," probably from Old Norse buask "to prepare oneself," reflexive of bua "to prepare" (see bound (adj.2)) + contraction of Old Norse reflexive pronoun sik. Most common in northern Middle English and surviving chiefly in Scottish and northern English dialect. Related boun had the same senses in northern and Scottish Middle English. Related: Busked; busking.

The nautical term is attested from 1660s (in a general sense of "to tack, to beat to windward"), apparently from obsolete French busquer "to shift, filch, prowl," which is related to Italian buscare "to filch, prowl," Spanish buscar (from Old Spanish boscar), perhaps originally from bosco "wood" (see bush (n.)), with a hunting notion of "beating a wood" to flush game. For the "perform in public" sense, see busker.
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busk (n.)
"strip of wood, whalebone, etc., used in corset-making," 1590s, probably from French busc (16c.), which is of unknown origin, perhaps from or cognate with Italian bosco "splinter" and of Germanic origin (see bush (n.)).
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busker (n.)
"itinerant entertainer," 1857, from busk (v.) "to offer goods for sale only in bars and taprooms," 1851 (in Mayhew), which is perhaps from busk "to cruise as a pirate," which was used in a figurative sense by 1841, in reference to people living shiftless and peripatetic lives; compare the nautical sense of busk (v.). Busker has been mistakenly derived from buskin in the stage sense.
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buskin (n.)
"half-boot, high laced shoe," c. 1500, of unknown origin. The word exists in different forms in most of the continental languages, and the exact relationship of them all apparently has yet to be determined. The English word is perhaps immediately from Old French broissequin "buskin; a kind of cloth" (14c., Modern French brodequin by influence of broder "to embroider"), or from Middle Dutch brosekin "small leather boot," which is of uncertain origin. OED suggests Spanish borcegui, earlier boszegui.

Figurative senses in English relating to "stage tragedy, tragic drama" are from the word being used (since mid-16c.) to translate Greek kothurnus, the high, thick-soled boot worn in Athenian tragedy; contrasted with sock, the low shoe worn by comedians. Related: Buskined.
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busking (n.)
1851, a slang word, defined variously in Mayhew as selling articles or obscene ballads in public houses, playing music on the streets, or performing as a sort of informal stand-up comedy act in pubs, perhaps from an earlier word meaning "to cruise as a pirate" (see busker).
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buss (n.)
"a kiss," 1560s; probably of imitative origin, as are Welsh and Gaelic bus "kiss, lip," French baiser "kiss" (12c., from Latin basiare), Spanish buz, German dialectal Buss, Turkish bus, Persian busa, Hindi bosa.
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buss (v.)

"to kiss," 1570s, from buss (n.). Related: Bussed; bussing.

Kissing and bussing differ both in this,
We busse our wantons, but our wives we kisse.
[Robert Herrick, "Hesperides," 1648]
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