Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A head-dress worn by Frenchwomen from 1430 to 1465 or later, high and conical in form, but differing in shape at different times.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a headdress in the shape of a cone, "steeple" or truncated cone worn by European women of the nobility in medieval times

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word hennin.

Examples

  • The hennin is the big conehead style everyone imagines when thinking of

    When Were Women’s Hats in Fashion? « Colleen Anderson 2009

  • My daughter had once taken a course in costume design so she knew that "a hennin is a tall, conical or heart-shaped hat sometimes worn with a flowing veil."

    The Union - All Categories 2008

  • A form of hennin. fairytale princesses but had a relatively short life and also had many variations.

    When Were Women’s Hats in Fashion? « Colleen Anderson 2009

  • Quickly she fashioned a suitable maid-of-honor dress, complete with a dainty little hennin-a long conical hat with a bit of material descending from it.

    Harpy Thyme Anthony, Piers, 1934- 1994

  • Only when she reached the end of the long avenue and circled around among the squat black tents of the humbler folk did she succumb at last to temptation in the shape of a goblinesque little maiden with thick blonde braids and a pert scarlet hennin, who offered flagons of carved myrtlewood filled with a marvelous perfume distilled from forest flowers.

    The Golden Torc May, Julian, 1931- 1981

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

    A Childhood in Brittany Eighty Years Ago 1919

  • Her softly rounded face looked absurdly childlike under the tall-crowned hennin, from which a wispy veil floated behind her as she moved.

    The Historical Nights' Entertainment First Series Rafael Sabatini 1912

  • Doubtless you're that girl that's been hanging up the new window-blinds that won't roll, and disguising the pillows with clean slips, and hennin 'round among my books and papers on the table here, and aging me generally till I don't know my own handwriting by the time I find it!

    The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, Volume 10 1883

  • On her head is the muslin-draped and high-peaked "hennin."

    Illuminated Manuscripts John William Bradley 1873

  • Sometimes there was a wry little aside to leaven the mix, such as a comment about the unflattering effect of the fashionable ultra-short men’s coat on a middle-aged courtier of ample girth, or the tendency of a two-foot steeple hennin those tall cone-shaped head-dresses worn by great ladies at the time to poke people in the eye.

    Daughter of York, by Anne Easter Smith. Book review. Carla 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.