crakow
.
Searchable Lemmata: crakou (ME), crakow (MdE).
Alternate Forms: crakow, crakowe, crakowes, crakowis, crakows, crawcows.
Definitions and Defining Citations:
1(n.)
Footwear;
extended point of a shoe; a shoe with such an extended point (often referred to as a poulaine). The fashion of wearing elongated points on men's shoes became particularly popular in England through the second half of the fourteenth century. The English name is derived from the supposed place of origin. While the fashion again gained popularity during the second half of the fifteenth century, the word 'crakow' was largely replaced by 'pike' or 'point'.(circa 1367 - circa 1475)
1. Habent etiam sotulares rostratas in unius digiti longitudine quae crakowes vocantur; potius judicantur ungula ... daemonum quam ornamenta hominum. ... Habent etiam cligas ... quas cum corrigiis ligant ad suos paltokkos quæ vocantur harlottes [vr. harlotes], et sicunus harlot servit alteri
[MED Eulogium ((Trin-C R.7.2) 3.231) circa 1367]
Sex: Male Use: Secular Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Foot.
Etymological Evidence:
Definite, From Kraków, Poland, from whence it was thought the fourteenth-century fashion originated (commonly attributed to the courtiers of Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II, but the usage predates Anne's marriage to Richard in 1382). The earliest known attestation in Britain is from the Eulogium Historiarum sive Temporis, Cambridge, Trinity College R.7.2, (740), Thomas of Malmesbury?, c. 1367, ed. F. C. Haydon, 3 vols. RS 9 (1858-63), vol. 3, p. 231.
WF: Borrowed into the British Isles
Etym Cog:
References:
Archaeological Evidence:
Greew and de Neergaard (1988) 115-119.
