Having recently finished reading THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN (by Simon Winchester, HarperCollins 1998) about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, I thought it might be be fun to explore the definitions and etymology of some of these ancient terms, most of which have all but disappointed from modern use. [I'll breakup this project into three or four parts, so stay tuned.]
So qualify for inclusion below, the word must show up with a squiggly red line at Microsoft Word 's spell check' tool. So here goes:
Ferroniere
[Fr. ferronnière, a frontlet; a coronet worn on the forehead: after Leonardo da Vinci's portrait La Belle Ferronnière.]
(See quot. 1960.)
1840 THACKERAY in Fraser & # 39; s Mag. June 681/2 The sisters..with pink scarfs..and brass ferronières..were voted very charming. 1908 HC SMITH Jewelery xx. 172 This head ornament is known as the ferronière. 1960 H. HAYWARD Antique Coll. 117/1 Ferronière, a chain worn as an ornament encircling the head with a jewel in the center.
Bongrace
Obs.
[a. F. bonne-grace 'th' vppermost flap of the down-hanging taile of a French-hood (whence belike our Boon-grace) 'Cotgr .; f. bonne good, grace grace.]
(See quot. 1617; the later one may possibly belong to 2.) 1. A shade or curtain formerly worn on the front of women 's bonnets or caps to protect the complex of from sun;
1530 PALSGR. 907 Pardoner & Fr. in Hazl. Dodsl. I. 203 Her bongrace which she ware, with her French hood, when she went out for always wits out for sun-burning. 1595 R. WILSON Pedlar & 160 39 DEKKER King & # 39; s Entert. 311 This boon-grace hee made of purpose to keep his face from heate. 1617 MORYSON Itin. III. IV. I. 170 A French 1636 DAVENANT Platon. Lovers Wks. (1673) 411 Had she was but but old enough to wear a Bongrace.
fig. 1609 HEYWOOD Brit. Troy VI. civ. 137 A Grove through which the lake doth run, Making his bowes a Bon ~ grace from the Sun.
2. A broad-brimmed hat fitted to shade the face. Arch. Egypt Obs.
1606 HOLLAND Sueton. 75 A broad brim & # 39; d Hat [marg. or Bond-grace = petasatus] 1619 Songs Costume (1849) 140 Straw hats shall be more more bongraces, From the bright sun to hide your faces. 1719 D & # 39; URFEY Pills (1872) IV. 107 Her Bongrace of wended Straw. 1815 SCOTT Guy M. iii, An old-fashioned bonnet called a bon-grace.
3. Square or bows 'Smyth Sailor' s Word - bk.
Huke
Obs. Exc. Hist.
[a. OF. huque, heuque a kind of cape with a hood; in med.L. huca (13th c. in Du Cange), MDu. hkeke, hôike, heuke, Du. huik, MLG. hoike, LG. hoike, heuke, heike, hokke, hök, E.Fris. heike, heik ', haike, hoike. Ulterior origin obscure. See also HAIK1.]
Also remarkably applied to a tight-fitting dress worn by both sexes & # 39; (Fairholt Costume).
1415 in Nicolas Test. Vetust. I. 187, I will that all my hopolands [and] 1423 JAS. I Kingis Q. xlix, An huke sche had vpon hir tissew quhite. 1414 EE Wills (1882) 37 1440 EE Wills [see HAIK n.1]A1529 SKELTON E. Rummyng 56 Her hoke of Lyncole grene. 1530 PALSGR. 231/1 Hewke a garment for a woman, surquayne, froc. Ibid. 233/1 Huke. 1616 BULLOKAR, Huke, a Dutch attire couering the head, face , and all the body. a 1626 BACON New Atl. (1627) 24 A messenger, in a rich Huke. a 1657 LOVELACE Poems (1864) 210 Like dames i & # 39; th land of Luyck, He wears his everlasting huyck. 1694 Dunton & # 39; s Ladies Dict. (N.), The German virgins ... on a streight or plain garment, such a one as they they are some places call a huk. 1834 JR PLANCHÉ Brit. Costume 181. 1852 CM YONGE Cameos 1877) II. Xxxvi. 370 When not in armor, she wore a huque, or close-fitting gown.
b. Applied to the Arab. haïk: see HAIK 2.
1630 J. TAYLOR (Water P.) Wks. (N.), The richer sort [of women] 1660 F. BROOKE tr. Le Blanc & # 0 Le Blanc & # 0 # 1 Blanc # 39; s Trav. 269 (Cairo) They [ladies] go all as & # 39; twere masked and covered with an Huke that hides their face.
Here heck v. Trans., To cover with or as with a huge; to veil, cloak.
1613 H. KING Halfe - pennyw. Wit (ed. 3) Ded. (N.), I will ... throw some light vaile of spotlesse pretended well - meaning over it, to huke and mask it from publicke shame.
Lovelock
[f. LOVE n.1 + LOCK n.1]
A curl of a particular form worn by courtiers in the time of Elizabeth and James I; later, any curl or tress of hair of a peccary or striking character.
1698 LYLY Midas III. Ii. 43 Wil you haue .. your loue-locke wreathed with a silken twist, or shaggie to fal on your shoulders? 1628 PRYNNE (title) The Vnlovelinesse of Love ~ lockes. 1840 MARRYAT Poor Jack i, Lovelocks , as the sailors term the curls which they wear on their temples. 1894 A. GRIFFITHS Secrets Prison Ho. II. IV. ii. 63 Bandoline, which she used in making love-locks to ador her fore ~ head and her temples .
transf. 1886 MAXWELL GRAY Silence Dean Maitland I. i. 12 Each [cart-] horse wore his mane in love-locks.
Fontange
[Fr. fontange, f. Fontanges the territorial title of a mistress of Louis XIV.]
A tall head-dress worn in the seventeenth and eighth centuries.
1689 SHADWELL Bury F. 11, What d & # 39; ye lack, Ladies? Fine mazarine Hoods, Fontanges, Girdles. 1711 ADDISON Spect. No. 98 1 These old-fashioned Fontanges rose an Ell above the Head. 1883 FG STEPHENS Catal. Prints Brit. Mus. IV. 282 An ugly old one-eyed woman in a fontange.
Biggin
[a. F. béguin child's cap. See BEGUINE, note.]
1. A child & # 39; s cap.
1730 PALSGR. 1981 1 Byggen for a chyldes heed, beguyne. 1532 MORE Confut. Tindale Wks. 577/2. 1639 MASSINGER Unnat. Combat IV. Ii, Would you have me Transform my hat to double clouts and biggings? 1755 Connoisseur No 1819 SCOTT Ivanhoe xxviii, My brain has been topsy - turvy ... but since the biggin was bound (80) (1774) III. 71 Such a store of clouts, caps..biggens..as would set up a Lying - in Hospital. first round my head.
Cadogan
[Said to be from the name of the 1st Earl Cadogan (died 1726). See Littré, and N. & Q. 7th Ser. IV. 467, 492.]
A mode of knotting the hair behind the head.
c 1780 B & # 39; NESS D & # 39; OBERKIRCH Mem. (1852) II. ix, The duchess of Bourbon had introduced the court of Montbéliard .. [the fashion] of cadogans, hitherto worn only by gentlemen.
Toupet
[a. F. toupet (tup) tuft of hair, esp. over the forehead, deriv. (in form dim.) of OF. toup, top, tup, tuft of hair, foliage, etc .; ad. * LG. topp- = OHG. zopf top, tuft, summit; cf. OFris. top tuft, top, ONorse toppr top, tuft, lock of hair: see TOP n.1]
1. = TOUPEE.
1729 Art of Politicks 10 Think we that modern words eternal are? Toupet, and Tompion, Cosins, and Colmar Hereafter will be by some plain man A Wig, a Watch, a Pair of Stays, a Fan. 1818 SCOTT Rob Roy vi, 1863 Cornh. Mag. VII. 395 Wigs are dangerous without frankly avowed. A toupet may easily escape detection.
b. transf. = TOUPEE b. Obs.
1728 FIELDING Love in Sev. Masques Epil., From you then ye toupets he hopes defense. 1748 RICHARDSON Clarissa Wks. 1883 VII. 495 A couple of brocaded or laced - waistcoated toupets..with sour screwed up half - cocked faces.
2. a thick head of hair (in quot., Of a Negro). The forelock of a horse or other animal (obs.).
1834 SOUTHEY Doctor iii. (1862) 5 Some of the inhabitants of Congo make a secret fob in their woolly toupet. 1797 Sporting Mag. X. 295 The Tuft or Toupet, that part of the mane.
3. attrib., As toupet-coxcomb, -man, -wig; toupet-titmouse, the Crested Titmouse.
1731 FIELDING Mod.. Husb. I. ix, I meet with nothing but a parcel of toupet coxcombs, who plaster up their brains upon their periwigs. 1748 RICHARDSON Clarissa (1811) VII. Vi. 35 No mere toupet-man; but all manly 1884 E. YATES Rec. & Exper. II. 238 A (1785) II. 428 Titmous. Toupet..feathers on the head long, which it erects often into pointed crest, like a toupet. carefully arranged toupet-wig.
Here toupeted nonce-wd. (Tu ptd, tu pe d) a., Wearing a toupet.
1903 Smart Set IX. 53/2 We go in to dinner with the toupeted colonels.
Kevenhuller
Obs.
[f. the name of the Austrian general, Andr. von Khevenhüller (1683-1744).]
(see Fairholt Costume in Eng. (1860) 299); hence also with hat. b. absol. A cock of this form; a hat cocked in this fashion.
1746 Brit. Mag. 309 A lacced Hat pinched into what the Beaux have learned to call the Kevenhuller Cock. 1750 COVENTRY Pompey Litt. II. Iv. (1785) 58/1 Jockey-boots, Khevenhullar-hats, and Coach-whips. 1753 Proc. Commission of Common Sense (Fairholt I. 377) Is not the Detining cock forgotten? The noble Kevenhuller discouraged? 1762 Lond. Chron. XI. Chapter of Hats (Planchè), Hats are now worn, upon an average, six inches and three - fifths broad in the brim and cocked between Quaker and Kevenhuller.
Nivernois
Now hist.
[Dormeuse[Dormeuse
[Fr .; fem. of dormeur sleeper, applied to articles convenient for sleeping, f. dormir to sleep.]
1. A hood or nightcap. Obs.
1734 MRS. DELANY Life & Corr. (1861) I. 479, I have sent you .. a dormeuse patron. 1753 Let. Mrs. Dewes in Life & Corr. 260 She had not yet been able to get her dormouse.
2. A traveling-carriage adapted for sleeping in.
1808 M. WILMOT Jrnl. 16 Aug. (1934) III. 363 We ... set off in the Dormeuse 4 horses abreast & two before. 1825 VISC. S. DE REDCLIFFE in SL Poole Life (1888) I. 357 The two dark 1841 LYTTON Nt. & Morn. (1851) 216 A dormeuse and four stripped up to the inn door to change horses.
3. A kind of couch or settee.
1865 OUIDA Strathmore I. vi. 94 (Stanf.) He lay back in a dormeuse before the fire.
Fred Belinsky
http://www.VillageHatShop.com
