caxon · noun — A kind of wig. It carries an Arena rating of 1400, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, caxon ranks #2,683 of 17,177 for Most Whimsical Words, #3,515 of 17,147 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #6,665 of 17,201 for Funniest Words, #6,779 of 17,195 for Most Exacting Words.
Why “caxon” is a great word
An old-fashioned, shabby, or especially large kind of wig, likely an eponym from the proper name Caxon; a borrowing from Spanish *caxon*, first attested in English before 1761. Unlike “peruke” (which denotes the powdered grandeur of courtly fashion) or “toupee” (a discreet patch for thinning pride), a caxon speaks of faded gentility and threadbare pretense. It is the dusty horsehair bulging over a clerk’s ears, the moth-eaten relic discovered in an attic trunk, the grotesque halo that turns dignity into a gentle, public joke—the quiet sorrow of a disguise no longer believed, but too familiar to discard.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
noun
- A kind of wig.e.g.“The other , an old , discolored , unkempt , angry caxon , denoting frequent and bloody execution . Woe to the school , when he made his morning appearance in his passy , or passionate wig” — 1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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