carcanet

English

Alternative forms

• carkanet

Etymology

From French carcan +‎ -et.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑːkənɛt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑɹkənɛt/

Noun

carcanet (plural carcanets)

1. (archaic) A richly decorative collar.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet LII”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     Like stones of worth they thinly placed are, / Or captain jewels in the carcanet.

   • 1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume IV (The Talisman), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 48:

     Lo you! let me have a blue robe, and—search for the ruby carcanet, which was part of the King of Cyprus's ransom—it is either in the steel-casket, or somewhere else.

   • 1891, Charles Egbert Craddock [pseudonym; Mary Noailles Murfree], In the “Stranger People’s” Country […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     [H]e cared nothing for curiously woven shrouds, and feathered mantles, and carcanets of pearl beads, and jars of quaint pottery […]

   • 1954 July 29, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings, London: George Allen & Unwin, →OCLC:

     There flying Elwing came to him, / and flame was in the darkness lit; / more bright than light of diamond / the fire upon her carcanet.