tiara

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin tiāra (“tall conical headdress of the ancient Persians”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek τιάρα (tiā́ra), also τιάρας (tiárās) and Ionic τιήρης (tiḗrēs),^[2][4][7] and partly borrowed from Italian tiara, used of the papal crown.^[7][8][9] The Greek word is of unknown origin according to the OED,^[2] but Etymonline, Klein and Weekley call it Oriental,^[5][10][11] Collins Asian,^[12] and Skeat took it to be of Persian origin, as the name of a Persian headdress.^[13] The English form tiar, recorded from 1513, was probably formed after French tiare, which is recorded from the 14th century.^[2][5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The tall headdress or peaked cap worn by the Persians and some other eastern peoples, varying by rank: 1555, in William Waterman's translation of Boemus, The Fardle of Facions.^[2][4][6] Barnhart adds that it was worn principally by the Persian kings but also by men of rank.^[4] The anglicised tiar appears earlier, in 1513, in Gavin Douglas's translation of the Aeneid.^[2][14]

Semantic evolution

From the Persian headdress the word passed to the pope's tall triple crown: the OED's first record is from John Evelyn's diary for 1645 (written before 1660),^[2] and Hoad dates the sense to the 17th century.^[7] By 1780 it was also a heraldic charge representing that crown.^[2][8] The ornamental headband worn by women, the main modern sense, is recorded from 1718, in Prior's Solomon,^[2][4][5] though tiar was perhaps used for it by 1660, possibly confused with tire, a headdress.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the jewelled headband in Western dress to the 1650s as tiar.^[5] The figurative use followed in 1818, in Byron's Childe Harold,^[2] and in 1868 the word was used of the headdress of the Jewish high priest.^[2] Johnson (1755) entered it under tiar and tiara as a dress for the head, a diadem, quoting Milton's "golden tiar".^[15] Collins also records the tiara for the office of pope.^[12][8]

Timeline

• 1513 – tiar, the Persian headdress.^[2][14]
• 1555 – tiara, the headdress of the Persian kings and other eastern peoples.^[2][4][6]
• before 1660 – the pope's triple crown.^[2]
• 1718 – an ornamental band or coronet worn on the head.^[2][4][5]
• 1780 – in heraldry, a charge representing the papal crown.^[2]
• 1818 – figuratively, a crown or diadem.^[2]
• 1837 – verb, to adorn with a tiara.^[2]
• 1868 – the headdress of the Jewish high priest.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woman's jewelled, often semicircular, ornamental band worn on the head on formal occasions: The bride wore her grandmother's diamond tiara.^[12][6][2]
2. The pope's triple crown; also the office of pope.^[12][6][2]
3. (historical) A tall headdress worn by the ancient Persians, especially by their kings.^[12][6][2]

Word family

• tiaraed
• tiaralike

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 m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.