coronet

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English corounet, also crounet,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French coronete, also coronette and later couronnette,^[4][5][6] a diminutive of corone (“crown”) (later couronne) with the suffix -et,^[4][5][7] from Latin corōna (“crown”), the source of crown.^[8][5][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives Middle French coronette as the immediate source.^[10] The OED derives the older form crownet within English, from the noun crown and the same suffix, and records a reduced form cronet.^[4] Johnson derived it from Italian coronetta.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small crown worn on the head: the first record, in the form crownet, is in Chaucer's translation of the Roman de la Rose, in a manuscript of before 1425,^[2][5][12] which Etymonline dates to about 1400.^[8] The OED's first quotation for the form coronet is from Robert Fabyan's chronicle, before 1513.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the 16th century the word was specialized for the crown of a rank below the sovereign, worn by the nobility and differing in form with the rank;^[4][13] Johnson (1755) described the coronets of a duke, marquis, earl and viscount.^[11] A woman's ornamental band or wreath for the head is recorded from 1599, and a garland of flowers from 1600, in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[4] The idea of a ring at the top or edge led to technical uses: in botany a corona or crown of a plant (1555), in farriery the lowest part of a horse's pastern, above the hoof (1683), and the ring of bone at the base of a deer's antler (1898).^[4][14] The verb, to adorn with or raise to a coronet, appears in 1813, in Walter Scott.^[4][10]

Timeline

• before 1425 – a small crown, as crownet, in Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose.^[2][5]
• before 1513 – the form coronet; a crown of a dignity below the sovereign.^[4]
• 1555 – in botany, a corona or crown of a plant.^[4]
• 1599 – an ornamental band or wreath for the head.^[4]
• 1600 – a garland of flowers, in Shakespeare.^[4]
• 1683 – the lowest part of a horse's pastern.^[4]
• 1709 – a figure of a coronet, in heraldry.^[4]
• 1813 – verb, to adorn with a coronet.^[4]
• 1898 – the ring of bone at the base of a deer's antler.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small crown, especially one worn by princes or peers as a sign of a rank below that of the sovereign.^[14][10][4]
2. An ornamental band or circlet for a woman's head, often set with jewels.^[14][10][4]
3. (heraldry) A figure of a coronet, as a support for a crest.^[14][4]
4. The band of skin just above the hoof of a horse, at the bottom of the pastern.^[14][4]
5. The ring of bone at the base of a deer's antler.^[14][4]

Verb

1. To adorn with a coronet, or to raise to a rank that carries one.^[10][4]

Word family

• coronetlike
• coroneted

Related words

• crown
• corona
• coronation
• coronal
• corolla

References

1. ^ a b 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. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ 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.
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins