👒 A winged headdress 🚩 A small flag

cornette

9.9

A starched white head covering with wing-like sides worn by some nuns

noun
/kɔrˈnɛt/

Archaic

: cornete

Milla wrapped herself in a wool shawl and laced her cornette under her chin.

Examples

Milla untied her cornette, sat at the reading table, and clasped her hands in her lap.

Fiction book (2002)
The museum showcased a vintage cornette that once belonged to a nun from the 19th century.
Milla adjusted her cornette to make sure it sat perfectly on her head.
During the ceremony, the nuns proudly wore their traditional cornettes as they walked down the aisle.

Synonyms

bonnet

vscornette

19 4.1

A hat for women or children tied under the chin that covers the ears and back of the head

is stiffer and projects wing-like shapes rather than fitting close

headdress

vscornette

18 5.6

An item worn on the head for ceremonies like weddings

is a stiff winged style once worn by certain nuns

caleche

vscornette

Archaic

9.9

A large hood with rings that women wore in the 1700s to cover hair

is a starched winged form rather than a hooped or folded hood

kercher

vscornette

Archaic

9.9

A small old-fashioned scarf a woman ties over her head

is structured and starched into wing shapes rather than being simple cloth

kell

vscornette

Archaic

9.9

A small cloth cap women wore in medieval times to cover their hair

is rigid and winged rather than a close, soft hair covering

Surface Forms

cornette singular

cornettes plural

Morphology

cornette = cornet (opaque) = cornet + ette

Although formed with the diminutive '-ette' from 'cornet', the specific sense 'nun's headdress' is not derivable from the base meaning and is historically specialized, so learners cannot predict it from the base.

Etymology

Cornette comes from an old French word corne meaning 'horn' or 'little horn'. The starched, wing-like side pieces of the nun's cap look a bit like small horns, so the name cornette was used for that special headdress.