Brassie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A former golf club with a brass-soled head, roughly equivalent to a modern two-wood, used for long shots from the fairway
2. An old type of golf club, a wood with a brass sole, used to hit long low shots off the tee or fairway
3. A traditional golf club with a brass-plated sole that corresponds to today's two-wood and was once used for distance

Etymology: A brassie is a golf club, the old name for what is now usually called a two-wood, and the word is built in the plainest way imaginable: it is simply "brass" with the diminutive-style ending "-ie" added. The name points to the club's sole, which was once fitted with a brass plate to protect it from wear and to help the club slide over turf and sand. The ending deserves a note. English took the "-ie" (spelled "-y" or "-ie" in various periods) from Scots and northern dialects, where it was used to form affectionate or familiar nicknames and small-thing words. Its earlier ancestry runs back through Old English "-ig" to very old Germanic roots, but in practice the word is a straightforward compound of an existing material name and a familiar suffix.

Synonyms: two-wood