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If I close my eyes I can see Marie today as I saw her then. Round, rosy face, snub nose, dark hair piled up in a chignon.
2021, Becky S. Li, Howard I. Maibach, Ethnic Skin and Hair and Other Cultural Considerations, page 154:
The physician should evaluate for a history of tight ponytails, buns, chignons, braids, twists, weaves, cornrows, dreadlocks, sisterlocks, and hair wefts in addition to the usage of religious hair coverings.
Spelled chaengnon around the 12th century with the meaning of nape; same Latin root as chaîne, i.e. catēna, perhaps via reconstructed Vulgar Latin*catēniōnem. The evolution of the meaning from “chain” to “nape” is unclear: a chain of bones (see Czechpáteř for a similar evolution) or metonymical, where a chain would rest (see col, collier).
The modern sense dates back from the middle of the 18th century and might have been influenced by the sound proximity of tignon, from tignasse.
The expression chignon de pain is a local, dialectal pronunciation of quignon de pain(“loaf of bread”). Note that, although not taken into consideration by the TLFi (see reference below), quignon could also be the etymon of chignon, considering that the same “pastry metaphor” applies to Frenchmacaron, Englishbun.