[Fr.; ad. Béarnese berreto = Catal. baret, Pr. birret:—late L. birretum cap: see BIRETTA.] A round flat woollen cap worn by the Basque peasantry; also, a clerical biretta, and a cap named from it.
1850. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863), 211. The four-cornered cap or beret, worn by the Augustine canons.
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, II. 334. With plumed beret and costume of the time.
1864. Mag. for Young, Feb., 47. The boys were dressed in the usual blouse and berret of the peasants.
1883. G. H. Boughton, in Harper’s Mag., 684/2. His crimson beret with its cock’s feather.
