Entertainment / Literature / Soccus: A soft shoe worn by actors in Latin comedies, in contrast with the buskins or kothorni worn in tragedies. Our modern English word sock comes from this term. Often, the word sock is used a metonym for comedy in contrast with buskin as a metonym for tragedy. Hence, Harry Shaw explains John Milton's reference in L'Allegro to 'the buskin'd stage' and to Ben Jonson's 'learned sock'--i.e., tragedy and comedy (43).
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