Busby

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Busby

Busby is the English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
name for the Hungarian

Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic languages unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries....
prémes csákó or kucsma, a military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or Threat of force ....
head-dress

Headgear

Headgear, headwear or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on one's head .Headgear serve a variety of purposes:...
made of fur

Fur

Fur is a Hair of any non-human mammal, also known as the pelage. It may consist of short ground hair, long guard hair, and, in some cases, medium awn hair....
, worn by Hungarian hussars

Hussar

Hussar refers to a number of types of light cavalry created in Hungary in the 15th century and used throughout Europe and even in Americas since the 18th century....
. In its original Hungarian form the busby was a cylindrical fur cap, having a bag of coloured cloth hanging from the top.

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Encyclopedia

Busby is the English

English language

Hungarian language

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or Threat of force ....
head-dress

Headgear

Headgear, headwear or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on one's head .Headgear serve a variety of purposes:...
made of fur

Fur

Fur is a Hair of any non-human mammal, also known as the pelage. It may consist of short ground hair, long guard hair, and, in some cases, medium awn hair....
, worn by Hungarian hussars

Hussar

Sabre

The sabre or saber is a kind of backsword that usually but not always has a curved, single-edged blade and a rather large Guard , covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger....
cuts. In Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
busbies are of two kinds: (a) the hussar

Hussar

Hussar refers to a number of types of light cavalry created in Hungary in the 15th century and used throughout Europe and even in Americas since the 18th century....
busby, cylindrical in shape, with a bag; this is worn by hussars and the Royal Horse Artillery

King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery

The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery is a ceremonial unit of the British Army. It was named The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery in 1947 when George VI of the United Kingdom decided that, following the mechanisation of the last batteries of horse drawn artillery, a troop of horse artillery should be kept to take part in the great...
; (b) the rifle busby, a folding cap of astrachan (curly lambswool) formerly worn by rifle regiments, in shape somewhat resembling a Glengarry

Glengarry

Glengarry is a boat-shaped cap without a peak made of thick-milled woollen material with a toorie or bobble on top and ribbons hanging down behind....
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

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
(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

Richard Busby

The Rev. Dr. Richard Busby was an England clergyman, and headmaster of Westminster School.He was born at Lutton in Lincolnshire, and educated at Westminster, where he first showed his academic promise by gaining a King's Scholarship....
, headmaster of Westminster School

Westminster School

The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxbridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college....
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

Bearskin

A bearskin is a tall fur cap, usually worn as part of a ceremonial military uniform. Traditionally, the bearskin was the headgear of grenadiers, and is still worn by regiments of grenadiers and foot guards in various armies....
, worn most notably by the five regiments of Foot Guards

Foot Guards

Foot guards is a term used to describe elite infantry regiments....
of the Household Division

Household Division

Household Division is a term used principally in the Commonwealth of Nations to describe a country?s most elite or historically senior military units, or those military units that provide ceremonial or protective functions associated directly with the head of state....
(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 bonnet

Feather bonnet

The feather bonnet is a type of military headdress used mainly by the Scottish Highlands infantry regiments of the British Army from about 1763 until the outbreak of World War I....
s of highland infantry. This practice has now fallen into disuse.

Busby

See also