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▪ I. tassel, n.1|ˈtæs(ə)l|
Also 5 tasshel, tasselle, 6–9 tassell, 7 tastle, tossell, 8 tossel (also 9 dial.), -il, Sc. taisel. See also tarsel.
[a. OF. tasel, tassel clasp (c 1150 in Godef.): cf. It. tassello the collar of a cloak, a label; med.L. tassellus, tacellus: see Du Cange. Referred by Diez to L. taxillus small die (cf. next): but this is doubtful. The sense-development in Italian, French, and English has not been clearly made out: see Diez, Godefroy, Du Cange. The variant tossel (now dial.) suggests some association with toss v.]
†1. A clasp or fibula by which the two sides of a cloak or the like are held together. Obs.
a1300Cursor M. 4389 He drou, sco held, þe tassel brak, Þe mantel left, he gafe þe bak. 13..Guy Warw. (A.) 5736 Gij bi his mantel drouȝ so, Þat þe tassels brosten ato. c1420Anturs of Arth. xxviii. (Irel. MS.), Monli in his mantille he sate,..The tassellus were of topeus. [1876J. R. Planché Cycl. Costume I. 503 Taselle, tasseau, Fr{ddd}Also used for the clasp or fibula through which the cords passed which secured the mantle on the shoulder.]
2. a. A pendent ornament consisting of a bunch or thick fringe of threads or small cords hanging in a somewhat conical shape from a solid rounded knob or mould, or from a knot formed by their junction with a cord. Frequently attached to a curtain, cushion, walking-cane, umbrella, etc., or forming the pull of a blind-cord or bell-cord.
13..Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 219 A lace.. Wyth tryed tasselez þerto tacched in-noghe. c1440Promp. Parv. 487/1 Tassel, tassellus. 1480Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 125 For the makyng of xvj laces and xvj tasshels for the garnysshing of divers of the Kinges bookes. 1530Palsgr. 279/2 Tassel that hangeth at a thyng of sylke or golde, houppe doree. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. viii. 3 An horne of bugle small, Which hong adowne his side in twisted gold And tasselles gay. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia ii. 35 All their tailes meete in the toppe of their head like a great Tassell. a1625Fletcher Nice Valour ii. i, And smile, and wave a chair with comely grace too, Play with our tastle gently. 1706Phillips (ed. 6), Tassels of a Coach, certain Silk-cords fasten'd on each Side the Doors, which serve for a Stay to those that ride in it. 1718Free-thinker No. 44 ⁋10 A young Damsel..tied a Gold Cord with two large Tossels of Gold to his Sword. 1755Connoisseur No. 97 ⁋1 The fellow-commoners, noblemen, and other rich students, whom..the courtesy of the University [of Cambridge] has honoured with a cap adorned with a gold tossel. 1792in Hist. Broughton Place Ch. Edin. (1872) 20 A' their taisels, vain an' gay To mak us stare. a1815in G. Rose Diaries (1860) II. 438 He put out his hand to pull the bell, but could not catch the tassel. 1849Layard Nineveh & Rem. I. iii. 49 A knotted girdle, ending in tassels, encircled the loins. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. vii. 233 A cushion of crimson velvet..with gold tassels at the corners.
†b. University slang. One who wears a cap with a tassel; an undergraduate. Cf. tuft. Obs.
1828Sporting Mag. XXI. 428 A capital front rank of ‘tassells’..all eager for a ‘slap at a snob’.
3. Anything resembling or suggesting a tassel:
a. In a tree or plant, a pendent catkin, blossom, flower, or bud; spec. the staminate (terminal) inflorescence of the maize-plant (U.S.): see also tassel-hyacinth in 5.
1646Winthrop New-Eng. (1826) II. 267 Great harm was done in corn..by a caterpillar... They eat up first the blades of the stalk, then..the tassels, whereupon the ear withered. 1755Gentl. Mag. Sept. 408/2, I found a fine stalk of Indian corn..; I cut off the male tossil as soon as it appeared, and there was produced a large ear, but no good grains upon it. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 61 In early spring, when the fragrant palms were on the willow, and the yellow tassels on the hazel. a1835Mrs. Hemans Voice of Spring iii, The larch has hung all his tassels forth. 1863Kingsley Water-Bab. i. 15 The bird-cherry with its tassels of snow. 1894E. Eggleston in Century Mag. Apr. 850 Our country people, when speaking of the male flower of the maize, preserve the broad vowel of their ancestors: ‘tossell’ it will remain in spite of the schoolmaster.
†b. A tuft; a fringe. Obs.
1609C. Butler Fem. Mon. i. (1623) B iij, Besides their Soueraigne, the Bees haue also subordinate Gouernours... For difference from the rest they beare for their crest a tuft or tossell, in some coloured yellow, in some murrey, in manner of a plume. 1672J. Josselyn New Eng. Rarities 35 The other is nothing but Bones with Tassels hanging from their Jaws, with which they [whales] suck in their prey.
¶4. In med. (Anglo-) Latin, tassellus is given by Du Cange as used = fimbria, fringe of a cope or chasuble. Dr. Rock, Church of our Fathers (II. 32–), explains Du Cange's quots. otherwise, and holds that tassellus had the following uses:
a. The large thin sheet of gold or silver hanging behind on the cope;
b. Any piece of gold or silver plate fastened to a vestment (copes and chasubles having ‘their tasselli sparkling with gems, hung all about them’);
c. The ornaments on the back of episcopal gloves, when not done in embroidery, but made of silver or gold plate. By Dr. Rock himself, and some writers after him, the English word tassel has been used in senses b and c.
[c1188Gervase of Canterbury in Dugdale Monast. Angl. (1655) I. 21 Duas capas de pallio cum tassellis auro paratis. c1250Matt. Paris Vitæ Abb. S. Albani (1639) 55 Capam unam purpuream, morsu et tassellis charissimis redimitam. a1252Visit. Churches St. Paul's 14 in Camden Misc. (1895) IX, Item capa chori crocea cum duobus tassellis brusdatis Majestate et Maria.] 1849Rock Ch. our Fathers II. 161 note, These tassels, as we said before, were thin plates of beaten gold or silver. 1887Archæologia L. ii. 448 Upon the ‘tassels’ of the cope of Richard Ruffus were depicted the martyrdoms of St. Stephen and St. Thomas.
5. attrib. and Comb., as tassel-board, tassel-drop, tassel-maker, tassel-making; tassel-hung adj.; tassel-cock, a game-cock which has a tuft of feathers in place of the comb; tassel-corn (U.S.), the grain of maize borne abnormally on the ‘tassel’ (see 3 a); tassel-fish, an Australian fish, Polynemus quadridactylus, the pectoral fins of which terminate in a number of long threads; tassel-flower, (a) a tassel-like flower; spec. the orange, scarlet, or yellowish blossom of Emilia sagittata (Cacalia coccinea), N.O. Compositæ, or the plant itself; (b) a shrub or tree of the genus Inga (Cent. Dict. 1891); tassel-grass, (a) a grass or (?) sedge with pendent spicules; (b) Ruppia maritima, an aquatic herb of which the seed-vessels are borne on clusters of lengthened pedicels; tassel hyacinth, Muscari comosum, the stalk and flower of which resemble a tassel; also called purse-tassel, purple tassels (Miller Plant-n. 1884); tassel-pondweed = tassel-grass (b) (ibid.); tassel-stitch, an embroidery stitch used in forming a fringe, loops of thread being left, which are afterwards cut; tassel-tree = tassel-bush (Cent. Dict. 1891); tassel-worm, a grub which feeds on the tassel of the maize-plant.
a1639Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. vi. (1677) 407 Every Chair had a *Tassel-boord covered with fine Velvet.
1898Pall Mall G. 3 Feb. 9/1 ‘Henny’ cocks..have won more battles..than any other birds, except it be the ‘*tassel’ cock.
1883E. L. Sturtevant in Science I. 234/1 (Variability of Maize) *Tassel-corn,—some of the kernels heavily, others slightly husked.
1852R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 150 A chased and figured fine gold brooch, with two pendent *tassel-drops.
1898Morris Austral Eng., *Tassel-fish, a thread-fish of Queensland, of the genus Polynemus. 1902J. T. Critchell in Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 110/2 Several species of the tassel fish (Polynemus macrocohoir), from which isinglass is procured, have been taken by fishermen.
1836A. Lincoln Familiar Lect. Bot. (ed. 5) 83 *Tassel-flower; from the East Indies. 1863‘G. Hamilton’ Gala-Days 10 The scarlet tassel-flower utterly refuses to unfold his brave plumes. 1885G. Allen Babylon vi, Do you know the tassel-flower? 1957C. O. Booth Encycl. Ann. & Biennial Plants 261/2 E[milia] sagittata..is the popular Tassel Flower, or Flora's Paintbrush, a charming half-hardy annual.
1810Southey Kehama xiii. xi, *Tassel-grass, whose silvery feathers play O'ertopping the young trees. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 336 Sea Ruppia or Tassel-grass..has slender, much-branched stems..and long slender bristly leaves with sheaths.
1850Tennyson In Mem. cii, The low love-language of the bird In native hazels *tassel-hung.
1790Curtis's Bot. Mag. IV. 133 (heading) Two Coloured, or *Tassel Hyacinth. 1865M. Eyre Lady's Walks in S. France xxiii. 251 The starch, and the tassel-hyacinth,..and many others..are all common flowers about Bagnères. 1961R. Genders Miniature Bulbs ii. 165 The ‘Tassel Hyacinth’ grows a foot high.
1902Daily Chron. 9 Sept. 3/6 A number of the *tassel-makers were independently interviewed in their own homes while at work... *Tassel-making is one of the three worst paid of the various home industries open to sweating.
1882Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework 194/2 *Tassel Stitch, a stitch used to make a looped fringe as an edging to Embroideries.
▪ II. tassel, torsel, n.2 Arch.|ˈtæs(ə)l, ˈtɒs(ə)l, ˈtɔːs(ə)l|
Also 7–9 tossel, 9 tassal.
[a. OF. tassel, mod.F. tasseau, = It. tassello a bit of stone or wood to stop a hole:—L. taxillus a small die. The form torsel app. arises from workmen's lengthening of the vowel in tossel.]
A short board or ‘templet’ placed under the end of a beam or other timber where it rests on brickwork or stonework.
1632in E. B. Jupp Carpenters' Co. (1887) 301 The making of all mantletrees tassels and footepaces of timber. 1654Ibid. 316 That no Timber..be laid in Chimneys except the mantle trees Tassells and Discharges. 1667Primatt City & C. Build. 82 Allow six foot of Timber for every Chimney, for Mantle-trees and Torsels. 1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 264 When you lay any Timber on Brick-work, as Torsels for Mantle-Trees to lye on. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 595 Torsel, a piece of wood laid into a wall for the end of a timber or beam to rest on. 1842–76Gwilt Archit. Gloss., Tassal, Tassel, Torsel, or Tossel, the plate of timber for the end of a beam or of a joist to rest on.
▪ III. tassel, v.|ˈtæs(ə)l|
Also 4 tassil, 5 tacel, 8 tassel.
[f. tassel n.1]
1. trans. To furnish or adorn with or as with a tassel or tassels.
In pa. pple. in Her. indicating that the tassel or tassels are of a tincture different from that of the rest of the bearing.
a1366Chaucer Rom. Rose 1079 A robe..With orfrays leyd was everydel,..And with a bend of gold tasseled. c1386― Miller's T. 65 By hir girdel heeng a purs of lether Tasseled with grene and perled with latoun. 14..Sir Beues (MS. N.) 3777 + 7 Tacellid wiþ rosys off syluyr bryȝt. 1572J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 92 He beareth Argente, a pursse gules, doble tasseled d'azure. 1724Lond. Gaz. No. 6290/2 A Velvet..Cushion edged and tasselled with Gold. 1894Blackw. Mag. Sept. 317/2 The blond sallow tasselled itself with gold.
2. intr. Of maize and sugar-cane: To form ‘tassels’, to flower, bloom. Chiefly U.S. Also tassel out.
1757in C. R. Woodward Ploughs & Politicks (1941) 278 Just before it Tossles it should be plowed & hoed again. 1774P. V. Fithian Jrnl. (1900) 212 The Corn is beginning pretty generally to tassel. 1785Washington Writ. (1891) XII. 227 It [Indian corn] should be kept clean and well worked..till it shoots and tassels at least. 1843Amer. Pioneer II. 83 Corn, if planted, grows a foot high, tassels out and dies. 1881Nicholson Fr. Sword to Share xxii. 153 Cane grew..almost everywhere..at altitudes up to 3,000 feet above sea-level, at half that height it ceased to blossom or tassel. 1887M. E. Wilkins Humble Romance 29 His corn tasselled out..as soon as anybody's. 1966R. G. Toepfer Witness v. 34 Mr. Davis Miller's corn was starting to tassel out and you could pretty near see it grow.
Hence ˈtasselling, ˈtasseling vbl. n. (also concr. work composed of tassels) and ppl. a.
1829Anniversary, Beatrice 232 She couches in the pleached bower Which tasselling honeysuckles deck. 1881Nicholson Fr. Sword to Share xxix. 222 In November the cane tops will throw out a feathery, dove-coloured blossom, called tasselling. 1902Westm. Gaz. 12 July 7/3 The sides of the stairs..are..finished off with gold tasselling.
▪ IV. tassel
obs. form of teasel, tercel. |