tress

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See also: Tress and trešs

English

Etymology

From Middle English tresse, from Old French tresce, of uncertain origin; possibly from Vulgar Latin *trichia, from Ancient Greek τριχία (trikhía, “rope”), from θρίξ (thríx, “hair”). Compare French tresse, Italian treccia.

Pronunciation

Noun

tress (plural tresses)

  1. A braid, knot, or curl, of hair; a ringlet.
    • 1910, Theodore C. Williams, The Aeneid, translation of Aeneis by Virgil, Book IV Chapter 28:
      nor was the doom / of guilty deed, but of a hapless wight / to sudden madness stung, ere ripe to die, / therefore the Queen of Hades had not shorn / the fair tress from her forehead, nor assigned / that soul to Stygian dark.
    • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 397:
      Even without theatrical shoes on, Erlys was taller than Luca Zombini, and kept her fair hair in a Psyche knot, out of which the less governable tresses continued, with the day, to escape.
  2. A long lock of hair.
  3. (by extension) A knot or festoon, as of flowers.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

tress (third-person singular simple present tresses, present participle tressing, simple past and past participle tressed)

  1. To braid or knot hair.

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