carcanet

[prettygoodword]

carcanet (KAR-kuh-net) - n., an ornamental necklace, collar, or headband.


Used in Bilbo and Aragorn's "Short Lay of Eärendel," in which Elwing takes the Silmaril necklace she wears, "more bright than light of diamond / the fire upon her carcanet," and gives it to Eärendel, who wears it as a headband, "crowned him with the living light." Also used by Shakespeare, btw, in Sonnet LII. Taken around 1530 from French carcanet, diminutive of carcan, yoke for punishment, probably from Medieval Latin carcanum/carcannum, of unknown origin (possibly Germanic).


And that wraps up a week of words from The Lord of the Rings, and this time back Monday to the usual mix.

---L.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I need to go back trhough this week!

[prettygoodword]

There's some good ones!

[prettygoodword]

For clarification, the Silmaril is set in a dwarven "pendant" which I always understood as being worn on a necklace by Elwing, but I have not checked what's said about it in The Silmarillion, which I last read many years ago.

(And yes, my browser spellcheck does know Silmarillion, but interestingly not Silmaril nor Elwing.)

[full_metal_ox]

This is a complete digression, but you reminded me of a young lady who was a periodic busmate of mine in Dayton, who I once saw wearing a gold bib statement necklace as a tiara.

(This was part of her Egyptian Queen look; she was such an improvisational genius at thrifted and crafted fashion that it would often take me a minute to recognize her, and connect the 70’s Funkster who boarded today to the Op-Art 60’s Mod-a-Go-Go of a couple days previously and the Modest Religious Girl of last week. She was trying to start a jewelry and accessory business.)

[prettygoodword]

That tracks for Dayton.

[full_metal_ox]

How so? (I ask as someone whose experience of life anywhere else is still pretty scant.)

[conuly]

Taken around 1530 from French carcanet, diminutive of carcan, yoke for punishment

A yoke for punishment, like... what, like a cangue?

[prettygoodword]

I'm a little vague on this, but I get the impression it's more of a shackle that goes around the neck than a full cangue-esque thing.

[conuly]

So more to impede escapes than specifically to punish, maybe?

[prettygoodword]

That and to mark prisoners, maybe? I haven't had much time yet to research this rabbithole.