Thing To Do Today: bustle.

I wonder why bustling is such a feminine thing?

(I usually write a small exploration of the issue, here, but in this case I don't dare.)


(I've put this photograph in for fun, even though this sort of a bustle is a completely different word from the one we're thinking about.)

Thing To Do Today: bustle. This word appeared in the 1500s. perhaps from buskle, which meant to make energetic preparation, from the Old Norse būask to prepare. 

I suppose the masculine equivalent is hustle, isn't it? 

This is possibly an even scarier thing to think about in print, so I think I'll shut up.

The origin of the padded-bottom sort of bustle is, sadly, an  eighteenth century mystery.