beret

Etymology

It is borrowed from French béret,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from the dialect of Béarn in southwestern France,^[3][8][7] where the OED cites Occitan berreto.^[2] Several dictionaries give Old Occitan berret (“cap”) as its source.^{[5][9][10][11]} Etymonline, Barnhart and Klein call the source Old Gascon.^[3][4][8] The Provençal word is from Medieval Latin birretum,^[3][4][2] also spelled birrettum,^[9][12] a diminutive of Late Latin birrus (“a large hooded cloak”),^[3][4][5][8] also birrum;^[8][12] Barnhart puts a form Vulgar Latin *birrittum between them.^[4] The OED compares Catalan baret.^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart consider the Latin word perhaps of Gaulish origin,^[3][4] and Ayto probably Celtic, comparing Middle Irish berr (“short”),^[13] as Partridge does with Old Irish berr (“short”).^[12] The same Latin word gave biretta, the cleric's square cap.^[13][3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cap like the Basque one, worn as a fashionable accessory: 1827, in the Lady's Magazine.^[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1826.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The cap was worn by the peasants of the Basque country and Gascony,^[11][3][13] and the word reached English through standard French.^[13] In English it was at first a fashion item for men and women, especially for casual or holiday wear; the OED records the Basque peasants' cap itself only from 1850, in Anna Jameson's Legends of the Monastic Orders, where the word also covered a clerical biretta.^[2] It later became part of many British service and other uniforms,^[2][7] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also has it for a woman's hat designed after the beret.^[11]

Timeline

• 1827 – a cap resembling the Basque one, as a fashionable accessory.^[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1826.^[11]
• 1850 – the round flat woollen cap of the Basque peasants; also a clerical biretta.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A round, flat, close-fitting cap of soft wool or felt, with no brim or visor, first worn by Basque peasants: He pulled his beret down against the wind.^[9][11][7]
2. Such a cap worn as part of a military or other uniform.^[7][2]
3. A woman's hat modelled on this cap.^[11]

Word family

• Green Beret

Related words

• biretta
• barret
• burnoose

Usage notes

The first edition of the OED (1887) entered the word as beret, berret, with a pronunciation ending in a vowel beside one ending in -t.^[2] British speakers now say /ˈbɛreɪ/ or /ˈbɛri/, with the stress on the first syllable, and American speakers /bəˈreɪ/, with the stress on the second.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black