Dictionary Definition
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Noun
Extensive Definition
Busby is the English
name for the Hungarian
prémes csákó or kucsma, a military head-dress made of fur, worn by Hungarian hussars. In its
original Hungarian form the busby was a cylindrical fur cap, having
a bag of colored cloth hanging from the top. The end of this bag
was attached to the right shoulder as a defense against sabre cuts. In Great
Britain busbies are of two kinds: (a) the hussar busby, cylindrical in
shape, with a bag; this is worn by hussars and the
Royal Horse Artillery; (b) the rifle busby, a folding cap of
astrachan (curly lambswool) formerly worn by rifle regiments, in
shape somewhat resembling a Glengarry but
taller. Both have straight plumes in the front of the headdress.
The popularity of this military headdress in its hussar form
reached a height in the years immediately before World War I
(1914-18). It was widely worn in the British (hussars, yeomanry,
and horse artillery), German (hussars), Russian (hussars), Dutch
(cavalry and artillery), Belgian (Guides and field artillery),
Bulgarian (Life Guards), Romanian (cavalry), Austro-Hungarian
(Hungarian generals) Serbian (Royal Guards), Spanish (hussars) and
Italian (light cavalry) armies.
Possibly the name's original sense of a 'busby
wig' came from association with Dr Richard
Busby, headmaster of Westminster
School in the late 1600s; it is also derived from buzz, in the
phrase ~ buzz wig.
The busby should not be mistaken for the much
taller bearskin cap,
worn most notably by the five regiments of Foot Guards
of the Household
Division (Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh
Guards). The 1911 edition of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica notes that the word "busby" was at that time used
colloquially to denote the tall bear and racoonskin "caps" worn by
foot-guards and fusiliers and the feather
bonnets of highland infantry. This practice has now fallen into
disuse.
References
See also
busby in German: Kalpak
busby in Portuguese: Colbaque