aigrette

/ay"gret, ay gret"/, n.

1. a plume or tuft of feathers, esp. the back plume of any of various herons, arranged as a head ornament.

2. a jeweled ornament depicting or suggesting this, usually worn in the hair or on a hat.

[1635-45; < F, equiv. to aigr- ( < Gmc; cf. OHG heiger heron) + -ette -ETTE. See EGRET, HERON]

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▪ plumage

      tuft of long, white heron (usually egret) plumes used as a decorative headdress, or any other ornament resembling such a headdress. Such plumes were highly prized as ornaments in Middle Eastern ceremonial dress. Jeweled aigrettes, at first made in the form of a tuft of plumes, became an adornment for turbans (turban) in Turkey, particularly during the Ottoman period (1281–1924).

      Jeweled aigrettes were listed in royal collections at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries. During the 18th century, they were popular with fashionable European women, who wore them pinned in their hair to hold masses of curls at the back of the head.

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