chaplet

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chapelet,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French chapelet (“a wreath for the head; a rosary”), with the Old Northern French form capelet,^[4][5][6] a diminutive of chapel (“headdress, hat, garland”),^[3][7][8] which is now chapeau.^[9][10] The chain continues to Medieval Latin cappellus (“hood, head covering”),^[6][7] from Late Latin cappa (“head covering, cloak”).^[6][7][11] The OED instead makes it a diminutive of chape and chapeau,^[5] and Hoad and the Shorter Oxford describe chapel as a Romance diminutive of the Latin noun.^[9][10] The Anglo-Norman word, recorded from the early 14th century, meant a cap or hat as well as a garland or decorative band for the head.^[12] Cap, cape, chaperon and chaplain go back to the same Latin noun.^[13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A wreath worn on the head: 1375, in John Barbour's The Bruce,^[6] and late 14th century in Etymonline.^[4] Chaucer has it four times and Gower once, glossed "garland".^[15] The Middle English Dictionary quotes Lydgate, about 1425: "On hir hed sche haþ a chaplet Of rosys rede".^[2] The OED, in an entry not fully revised, starts only from before 1464, in Capgrave.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Hoad says the French word first meant a crown of roses, and that it was applied to the beads of the rosary because they originally had the form of roses;^[9] Collins also glosses the French word as a garland of roses.^[16] Weekley compares rosary for the same shift.^[14] The string of prayer beads is recorded in English only from the 17th century,^[9][10] the OED's first quotation being of 1653.^[5] Johnson (1755) knew the wreath, the beads "used in the Romish church" and the architect's moulding, as well as a pair of stirrup leathers in horsemanship.^[17] The looser sense of anything like a string of beads, as a toad's string of eggs, is from 1774, in Goldsmith,^[5] and a necklace from about 1850.^[5] Founders were using the word for a metal support in a mould by 1885.^[5] The OED enters chapelet, a further transfer of the French word, for a chain pump with buckets (1874).^[5]

Timeline

• 1375 – a wreath for the head.^[6]
• 1400 – a representation of a garland, in a York will.^[2]
• 1623 – a moulding of the astragal kind.^[5]
• 1653 – a string of beads for counting prayers.^[5]
• 1688 – in heraldry, a garland of leaves with four flowers.^[5]
• 1774 – something like a string of beads, such as a toad's eggs.^[5]
• c. 1850 – a necklace.^[5]
• 1885 – in founding, a metal support for the core of a mould.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wreath or garland worn on the head: a chaplet of laurel and oak.^[16][7][5]
2. A string of beads, especially one used for counting prayers and making up a third of a rosary; also the prayers said on it.^[16][7][5]
3. Something that looks like a string of beads, such as the eggs of a toad.^[7][5]
4. A narrow moulding shaped like a string of beads; an astragal.^[16][5][17]
5. (heraldry) A garland of leaves with four flowers set at equal distances.^[7][5][10]
6. (founding) A metal support for the core of a casting mould.^[16][5][10]

Word family

• chapleted

Related words

• chapeau
• cap
• cape
• chapel
• chaperon
• chaplain

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.