Forms: 5–6 aglett(e, aglott(e, agglot, 5–9 aglet, 6 agglet(te, aiguelet, aguelette, ayguelet, 8 aigullet, 9 (egellet) aigulet, aiglet, aiguillette. [a. Fr. aiguillette dim. of aiguille needle:—late L. acūcula, var. of acicula, dim. of acus needle. The phonetic changes must have been aiguille·tte, aiguele·tte, aigle·tte, agle·tte, a·glĕt (-ŏt), but early instances are wanting: in modern times it has been again made aiglet and AIGUILLETTE.]
1. The metal tag of a lace (formerly called point), intended primarily to make it easier to thread through the eyelet-holes, but afterwards also as an ornament to the pendent ends.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Agglot or an aglet to lace wyth alle, Acus, aculus.
1468. Cov. Myst. (1841), 241. Two dozeyn poyntys of cheverelle, the aglottes of sylver feyn.
a. 1500. in Wright’s Vocab., 238. Hoc mominlum, a naglott.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 108. Take hede … that it be fast on with laces wythout agglettes.
1549. Latimer, 7 Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (1869), 117. He made hys pen of the aglet of a poynte that he plucked from hys hose.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 13. You put your aglet, sir, thorow the oilet that is not made for it.
1708. Kersey, Aglet, the Tag of a Point.
1775. Ash, Aiguillet, a point with tags.
1834. Planché, Hist. Brit. Cost., 236. These splendid hose … were attached by points or laces, with tags called agulettes or aglets (i. e. aiguillettes) to the doublet.
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos (1877), IV. xiii. 148. The message related to two letters written with an aglet plucked from his hose.
2. Hence, An ornament consisting a. properly, of a gold or silver tag or pendent attached to a fringe; whence b. extended to any metallic stud, plate or spangle worn on the dress.
1514. Fitzherbert, Justyce of Peas, 120. We shall weare any agglettes, botons, or broches, of golde or sylver, gylt, or counterfayt gylt.
1530. Palsgr., 193/2. Aiguelet to fasten a claspe in, porte.
1531. Elyot, Governour (1580), 91. A millayne or French bonnet on his head full of agglets.
1551. Edward VI., Jrnl. Lit. Rem. (1858), 325. His goune dressed with aglettes, worth 25 li.
1587. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1207/1. On the sleeues eight and thirtie paire of aglets of gold.
1580. Baret, Alvearie, A 227. An aglet or iewell in one’s cap.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., II. iii. 26. A silken Camus … Which all above besprinckled was throughout With golden aygulets, that glistred bright, Like twinckling starres.
1598. Florio, Tremolante … aglets or spangles.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Aglet, a little plate of any mettal, the tag of a point.
1764. R. Burn, Poor Laws, 21. No man, under the degree of a gentleman, shall wear any aglets of gold or silver.
c. esp. A tagged point, braid, or cord, hanging from the shoulder upon the breast in some military and naval uniforms. In this sense now officially treated as Fr., and written aiguillette.
1843. Lytton, Last of Bar., II. ii. 126. No flaunting tawdriness of fringe & aiglet characterised the appearance of the baron.
1845. J. Saunders, Cabinet Pict., 33. Little aiglets, tipped with gold, (hang) from his shoulders.
1879. Cornh. Mag., June, 685. A handsome officer, bearing the epaulets and aiglets of a staff captain.
1882. Navy List, July, 495/2. Aides-de-Camp to the Queen are to wear a gold aiguillette on the right shoulder.
3. ‘Still used in haberdashery, and denotes round white stay-laces.’ Drapers’ Dictionary, 1882.
[So in mod. Fr. aiguillette has passed from the tag to the lace or cord, as point did in Eng.]
4. Herb. Any pendent part of a flower resembling the prec., esp. a. A catkin of hazel, birch, etc. b. An anther (only in Dicts., and perh. erroneous).
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 635. The knoppes or agglettes that hang in the Birche or Hasell trees.
1598. Gerarde, Herball, I. xxxix. § 2. 56. A certain long aglet or bunch, such as the Aller tree bringeth foorth.
1657. Purchas, Theatre of Insects, xiii. 72. When they gather off the Aglets, or Catkins, of the Hazel.
1708. Kersey, Aglets or Aglects (among Florists) are the Pendants that hang on the Tip-ends of Chivets and Threads; as in Tulips, Roses, etc.
1809. Parkins, Culpepper’s Eng. Phys. Enl., 127. A long bush of small and more yellow, green, scaly aglets, set in the same manner on the stalks as the leaves are.
c. 1860. Lowell, Wks., 1879, 373/2. And [the willow] glints his steely aglets in the sun.
† 5. A fragment of flesh hanging by the skin. Hence, a scrap, a shred. (Cf. Fr. découper un canard par aiguillettes, Littré.) Obs.
1555. Fardle of Facions, II. x. 217. No, the begger … getteth not an aguelette of hym. Ibid., App. 352. That thei should vtterly destroy him … not leauing an agguelet of a poincte for the memorial of such hopeloste persones.
6. Comb. aglet-babie, ? A doll or (grown-up) ‘baby’ decked with aglets. (Explained by some as an aglet shaped like a human figure. Johnson defines aglet as ‘A tag of a point curved into some representation of an animal, generally of a man,’ but no quotations have been found bearing out this statement, which was perhaps merely hazarded as an explanation of aglet-babie); aglet-headed, having a head resembling an aglet; aglet-hole, a hole for passing a lace through, an eyelet-hole.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. ii. 80. Giue him Gold enough, and marrie him to a Puppet or an Aglet babie, or an old trot with ne’re a tooth in her head.
1789. Pilkington, Derby., I. 330 (Jod.). Aglet-headed rush.
1600. Darrell, Demon. Possess., 6. The boy … burst the buttons of his Doublet & the aglet holes before both of his Doublet and Hose. Ibid., Detect. Harsnet, 181. The buttons of his Doublett did brush off and his aglet holees breake.
1623. Minsheu, Sp. Dict., Aglet-hole, Ojéte.
