- Busby
Busby is the English name for the Hungarian "prémes csákó" or "kucsma", a
military head-dress made offur , 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 againstsabre cuts. InGreat Britain busbies are of two kinds: (a) thehussar 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 aGlengarry 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 beforeWorld 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 ofWestminster 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 theHousehold Division (Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards). The 1911 edition of theEncyclopaedia Britannica notes that the word "busby" was at that time used colloquially to denote the tall bear and racoonskin "caps" worn by foot-guards andfusiliers and thefeather bonnet s of highland infantry. This practice has now fallen into disuse.References
*1911
ee also
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Canadian military fur wedge cap
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