pouncet-box

== English == === Alternative forms === pouncet box === Etymology === Compare French poncette. === Noun === pouncet-box (plural pouncet-boxes) (historical) A box with a perforated lid, used to contain pounce or perfume. 1866, Septimus Piesse, Pouncet Box and Pomander, entry in Notes and Queries: 3rd Series, Volume 9: January—June 1866, page 392, The pouncet box mentioned by Shakespeare in the Midsummer Night's Dream, I have always considered as a similar article to the pomander worn by "fashionable people" in the time of Elizabeth, containing powdered perfumery, such as musk, civet, and various spices. 1894 (1819), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, Ginn & Company, page 364, " […] besides what is broken and spoiled among their rude hands, such as my pouncet-box and silver crisping-tongs." 1957, George Bernard Hughes, Small Antique Silverware, Bramhall House, page 186, More usually, however, the pouncet box hung from the waist by a black cord, until early in the seventeenth century. To Elizabethans the ceremonial of inhaling the piquant odour from the pouncet box was a social grace. ==== Usage notes ==== The hyphenated spelling dates back at least to Shakespeare and is repeated in numerous old dictionaries that cite him for usage. === See also === pomander === References === “pouncet box”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. === Further reading === Pomander § Pouncet box on Wikipedia.Wikipedia