- Aigrette
Aigrette (from the French for
egret , or "lesser white heron"), the tufted crest, or head-plumes of the egret, used for adorning a woman's head-dress, the term being also given to any similar ornament, in gems. Aigrettes, studded with diamonds and rubies also decorated theturban s of Ottoman sultans or the ceremonialchamfron of their horses. Several of these aigrettes are on display in the Treasury of theTopkapı Palace inIstanbul , Turkey.An aigrette is also worn by certain ranks of officers in the
French army .By analogy the word is used in various sciences for feathery excrescences of like appearance, as for the tufts on the heads of
insects , the feathery down of thedandelion , the luminous rays at the end of electrified bodies, or the luminous rays seen insolar eclipses , diverging from, the moon's edge.The 61.50 carat (12.3 g) whiskey-coloured diamond, "The Eye of the Tiger", was mounted by Cartier in a turban aigrette for the "Jam Saheb" or Maharajah of
Nawanagar in 1934 [http://www.royal-magazin.de/india/eye-of-the-tiger.htm] .A aigrette is also a type of fritter made of batter in an elongated shape, which is deep fried. The name means plume. (taken from The Marshall Cavendish handbook of Good Cooking)See also French submarines of the
Aigrette class .References
*1911
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