aigrette
See also: aigretté
English
![](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
Etymology
Borrowed from French aigrette (“egret”). Doublet of egret.
Pronunciation
Noun
aigrette (plural aigrettes)
- A feather or plume, or feather-shaped item, used as an adornment or ornament.
- 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 [...].
- 1918, Willa Cather, My Ántonia, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Book 2, Chapter 11, p. 241,[1]
- 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 2007, p. 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.
- 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, III.77:
- (ornithology) The lesser white heron.
- Synonym: egret
- The feathery crown of some seeds (such as the dandelion).
- (obsolete) A plume or tuft for the head composed of feathers and/or gems, etc.
- 1756, George Colman, The Connoisseur, London: R. Baldwin, Volume 2, p. 706,[3]
- 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.
- 1843, William H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, New York: Harper & Brothers, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 2, p. 33,[4]
- 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, Isabel Florence Hapgood (translator), Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, Volume 1, Book 3, Chapter 2, p. 149,[5]
- At intervals you behold the passage of sounds of all forms which come from the triple peal of Saint-Germaine 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.
- 1756, George Colman, The Connoisseur, London: R. Baldwin, Volume 2, p. 706,[3]
Further reading
References
- OED 2nd edition 1989
French
Etymology
From Old Occitan aigreta, diminutive of aigron (“heron”).
Noun
aigrette f (plural aigrettes)
- (ornithology) egret (Any of various wading birds of the genera Egretta or Ardea)
- (botany) pappus
- Synonym: pappus
- (of certain birds) crest (plumage)
- lumex
- feather (atop a hat)
Descendants
Gallery
Further reading
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
- en:Ornithology
- English terms with obsolete senses
- French terms derived from Old Occitan
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French feminine nouns
- fr:Ornithology
- fr:Botany