E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Mus’cadins of Paris.
French dudes or exquisites, who aped the London mashers in the first French Revolution. Their dress was top-boots with thick soles, knee-breeches, a dress-coat with long tails, and a high stiff collar, and a thick cudgel called a constitution. It was thought to be John Bullish to assume a huskiness of voice, a discourtesy of manners, and a swaggering vulgarity of speech and behaviour. Probably so called from being “perfumed like a popinjay.”
