blue·stock·ing

[After the Blue Stocking, Society, a nickname for a predominantly female literary club of 18th-century London (probably so called after the blue worsted stockings commonly worn as part of informal dress at the time).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bluestocking

[from the blue worsted stockings worn by members of a C18 literary society]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

blue•stock•ing

n.

a woman with considerable literary or intellectual ability or interest.

[1780–90; orig., a member of a mid-18th-century London literary circle that included some women (so called from the blue stockings worn by a male participant)]

Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

Noun

1.

bluestocking - a woman having literary or intellectual interests adult female, woman - an adult female person (as opposed to a man); "the woman kept house while the man hunted"

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.