aigrette
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See also: aigretté
English
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Marie-Antoinette%2C_1775_-_Mus%C3%A9e_Antoine_L%C3%A9cuyer.jpg/220px-Marie-Antoinette%2C_1775_-_Mus%C3%A9e_Antoine_L%C3%A9cuyer.jpg)
Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from French aigrette (“egret”). Doublet of egret.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]aigrette (plural aigrettes)
- A feather or plume, or feather-shaped item, used as an adornment or ornament.
- 1756, George Colman, The Connoisseur[1], volume 2, London: R. Baldwin, page 706:
- This bauble, said he, shewing me an elegant sprig of diamonds, is an aigret, sent in last week by a lady of quality, who has ever since kept home with her head muffled up in a double clout for a pretended fit of the tooth-ache.
- 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, III.77:
- His turban, furled in many a graceful fold, / An emerald aigrette, with Haidée's hair in't, / Surmounted as its clasp […]
- 1843, William H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico[2], New York: Harper & Brothers, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 2, p. 33:
- On a stool, in front [of the throne], was placed a human skull, crowned with an immense emerald, of a pyramidal form, and surmounted by an aigrette of brilliant plumes and precious stones.
- 1888, Victor Hugo, translated by Isabel Florence Hapgood, Notre-Dame de Paris[3], New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, Volume 1, Book 3, Chapter 2, p. 149:
- At intervals you behold the passage of sounds of all forms which come from the triple peal of Saint-Germain des Prés. Then, again, from time to time, this mass of sublime noises opens and gives passage to the beats of the Ave Maria, which bursts forth and sparkles like an aigrette of stars.
- 1918, Willa Cather, My Ántonia[4], Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Book 2, Chapter 11, p. 241:
- She was formal in manner, and made calls in rustling, steel-gray brocades and a tall bonnet with bristling aigrettes.
- 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 181:
- Young women attired often in nothing more than ostrich-feather aigrettes dyed in colors of doubtful taste ran nubilely up and down the marble staircases, chased by young men in razor-toed ball shoes of patent-leather.
- (ornithology) The lesser white heron.
- Synonym: egret
- The feathery crown of some seeds (such as the dandelion).
References
[edit]- OED 2nd edition 1989
Further reading
[edit]French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old Occitan aigreta, diminutive of aigron (“heron”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]aigrette f (plural aigrettes)
- egret (Any of various wading birds of the genera Egretta or Ardea)
- (botany) pappus, thistledown
- Synonym: pappus
- (of certain birds) crest (plumage)
- feather (atop a hat)
Descendants
[edit]Gallery
[edit]Further reading
[edit]aigrette on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia fr
- “aigrette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Ornithology
- en:Herons
- French terms derived from Old Occitan
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French feminine nouns
- fr:Botany
- fr:Herons