Bluestocking

Bluestocking is a term for an intellectual, scholarly, or literary woman, but often derogatory. In the mid-18th century, blue-stocking ladies or simply blue-stokingers were the women who were members of the three London ladies' societies who used to hold literary assemblies, or the women who attended those assemblies. Some of the men attending those assemblies favoured less formal dress. However, originally the term was used for a man wearing blue worsted instead of formal black silk stockings, and later it meant anyone 'in informal dress'.