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hennin

[hen-in]
noun
  1. a conical or heart-shaped hat, sometimes extremely high, with a flowing veil or piece of starched linen about the crown, worn by women in the 15th century.
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Origin of hennin

1850–55; < French, Middle French, perhaps < Middle Dutch henninck rooster, from a fancied resemblance of the hat to a rooster's comb
Also called steeple headdress.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for hennin

Historical Examples

  • Her coif was the tall medieval hennin of Plougastel, a flood of lace falling from its summit.

    A Childhood in Brittany Eighty Years Ago

    Anne Douglas Sedgwick

  • No doubt ladies were just human in those days, and fussed and frittered over an inch or so of hennin, or a yard or two of train.

    English Costume

    Dion Clayton Calthrop

  • Wearing a hennin on her head, she was praying on bended knees before a stained-glass window.