Forms: 5 sygnett, syngnett, 5–7 signett, 6 singnett, 6–7 signet, 6–8 cignet, 7 cygnette, 7– cygnet. [A dim., of Eng. or (?) Anglo-Fr. formation, of F. cygne or L. cygnus swan. OF. had the dim. cignel, cigneau (Godef.).
F. cygne is found in end of 14th c., but the ordinary OF. form was cine, earlier cisne, cinne. Cisne appears to be cognate with Sp. cisne, and OIt. cecino swan, which Romanic scholars derive from L. cicinus = cycnus, a. Gr. κύκνος swan. L. cycnus appears to have split into two types: *cicinus, found in Plautus (and app. in late popular Latin), whence the Romanic forms, and cygnus, which was long the accepted form in later MSS. and texts. Under the influence of the latter OF. cine became cygne (cf. mod.It. cigno).]
1. A young swan. In Her. see quot. 1825.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 57. Conuiuium domini Henrici Regis quarti, In coronacione sua apud Westmonasterium … Graund chare. Syngnettys.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.), 281. That brout venison and ij. signetts to my Lady.
1562. Bulleyn, Bk. Simples (1579), 78. The Signets bee better than the old Swannes.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., V. iii. 56. So doth the Swan her downie Signets saue.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle, vii. 2938. Her skin sleek sattin or the cygnettes brest.
1634. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons, xv. For 1 dozen of signetts.
1707. Fleetwood, Chron. Prec. (1745), 86. For 8 Cignets or young Swans.
1825. W. Berry, Encycl. Herald., I, Cygnet … properly, a young swan, but swans borne in coat-armour are frequently blazoned cygnets.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxxi. 424. It now rejoices in a drapery as grey as a cygnet’s breast.
2. Comb., as cygnet-down; cygnet-royal (Her.), see quot.
1795. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Liberty’s Last Squeak, Wks. 1812, III. 423. Lone silence … Her shoes of cygnet-down shall lend.
1847. H. Gough, Gloss. Heraldry, Cygnet royal, a swan gorged with a ducal coronet, having a chain affixed thereunto and reflexed over its back.
