fillet

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English filet,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French filet (“thread, filament; strip, ligament”),^[5][6][3] a diminutive of fil (“thread”),^[3][5][4] from Latin fīlum (“thread”).^[6][7][8] The OED takes the French noun as a diminutive common to the Romance languages, found also in Old Occitan filet, Spanish filete and Italian filetto.^[6][9] The Anglo-Norman noun, recorded from 1190–93, already covered thread, a headband, a strip of material or wood, and a fillet of wild boar.^[10] The verb is from the noun.^[6][5][3] The cookery spelling filet was borrowed again from French in 1841.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A ribbon or narrow band for the hair, worn to hold a headdress in place or as an ornament: before 1327, in Political Songs,^[6] and before 1325 in Barnhart's dating.^[3] Etymonline says the early 14th century.^[5] The MED's first quotation is from before 1350,^[2] and Chaucer uses the word once, of a broad silk band set high on a woman's head.^[11][2]

Semantic evolution

Weekley thought that the first English sense, a headband, was partly due to association with phylactery, since the Promptorium Parvulorum enters philett with Latin glosses for both;^[9] the Anglo-Norman Dictionary also records a filet meaning a phylactery or a holder for relics.^[10] From the 15th century the word applied to any strip for binding or decorating,^[6] and then to narrow flat bands in architecture (1473),^[6] heraldry (1572),^[6] bookbinding (1641)^[6] and carpentry.^[6][12] After French it was also used for the literal "thread" and for threadlike parts of plants, from before 1592 to 1735.^[6][12] The sense of a cut of meat appears from the end of the 14th century, and Etymonline suggests that the cut got its name by being tied up with a string.^[5][3] The OED records the plural fillets for an animal's loins from probably before 1400,^[6] and defines the veal joint of 1700 as a boned and rolled piece tied with a fillet.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave the meat sense as the fleshy part of the thigh, "applied commonly to veal", beside the band tied round the head.^[13] The fish fillet follows in 1725^[6] and the verb "to cut into fillets" in 1846, in Soyer's Gastronomic Regenerator.^[6][5][3] The 20th century added a curve inside an angle that prevents concentration of stress, and an aircraft fairing.^[12][6] In Cheshire a fillet was a tin band or a cloth used round a cheese in the vat.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1327 – a headband or hair ribbon.^[6] Barnhart dates it before 1325.^[3]
• before 1399 – a slice of meat or bacon.^[3] Etymonline says the late 14th century,^[5] and the OED's first quotation for a cut near the loins is from c. 1430.^[6]
• 1426 – a strip of material for binding, in Lydgate.^[6]
• 1473 – in architecture, a narrow flat band between mouldings.^[6]
• 1572 – in heraldry, a horizontal division of a shield.^[6]
• 1604 – verb, to bind the hair with a band, in Dekker.^[6][4][3]
• 1641 – in bookbinding, a line impressed on a cover.^[6]
• 1725 – a thick slice of fish.^[6]
• 1802 – a surgical bandage.^[6]
• 1841 – the cookery spelling filet, borrowed again from French.^[5]
• 1846 – verb, to cut fish or meat into fillets.^[6][5][3]
• 1935 – in aeronautics, a fairing between two surfaces.^[6][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A boneless piece of meat, especially the undercut of a sirloin of beef: We ordered two pork fillets.^[15][4][6]
2. The boned side of a fish, or a thick slice of one: a fillet of hake.^[15][6]
3. The white meat of a chicken's breast and wing.^[15]
4. A narrow ribbon or band worn in the hair or round the head or neck.^[15][4][6]
5. A thin narrow strip of any material.^[15][4][6]
6. In architecture, a narrow flat moulding between other mouldings, or the band between two flutings of a column.^[15][4][6]
7. A rounded inside corner where two surfaces meet, or a strip or line of welded metal or cement along such a joint.^[4][15][12]
8. In aeronautics, a fairing that smooths the airflow at the junction of two surfaces.^[4][12][6]
9. In bookbinding, a line impressed on a cover, or the wheeled tool that makes it.^[4][6][12]
10. In anatomy, a band of fibres, specifically a lemniscus.^[4][6]
11. In heraldry, a horizontal division of a shield, a quarter of the depth of a chief.^[6][12]
12. (obsolete, 1601–1730) A thread or string, or a threadlike part of a plant such as a root fibre or a stamen.^[6][12]

Verb

1. To cut meat or fish into fillets, or to take out the bones: The cook filleted the trout at the table.^[4][6][12]
2. To bind or adorn with a band or ribbon.^[4][6][12]
3. To round off a corner or angle with a concave section.^[4]
4. To mark or ornament with lines, now chiefly in bookbinding.^[6][12]

Word family

• fillet weld
• filleter

Related words

• filet
• filet mignon
• file
• filament

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster gives /ˈfɪlət/ for most senses of the noun and the verb, and /fɪˈleɪ/ or /ˈfɪleɪ/ for the cut of meat or fish and the verb "to cut into fillets".^[4] The spelling filet is a less common variant of the word for the cut of meat, and also for the ribbon sense in Collins.^[4][15]

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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins