Also 5 tasshel, tasselle, 6–9 tassell, 7 tastle, tossell, 8 tossel (also 9 dial.), -il, Sc. taisel. See also TARSEL. [a. OF. tasel, tassel clasp (c. 1150 in Godef.): cf. It. tassello the collar of a cloak, a label; med.L. tassellus, tacellus: see Du Cange. Referred by Diez to L. taxillus small die (cf. next): but this is doubtful. The sense-development in Italian, French, and English has not been clearly made out: see Diez, Godefroy, Du Cange. The variant tossel (now dial.) suggests some association with TOSS v.]
† 1. A clasp or fibula by which the two sides of a cloak or the like are held together. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4389. He drou, sco held, þe tassel brak, Þe mantel left, he gafe þe bak.
13[?]. Guy Warw. (A.), 5736. Gij bi his mantel drouȝ so, Þat þe tassels brosten ato.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., xxvii. (Irel. MS.). Monli in his mantille he sate,… The tassellus were of topeus.
[1876. Planché, Cycl. Costume, I. 503. Taselle, tasseau, Fr. … Also used for the clasp or fibula through which the cords passed which secured the mantle on the shoulder.]
2. A pendent ornament consisting of a bunch or thick fringe of threads or small cords hanging in a somewhat conical shape from a solid rounded knob or mould, or from a knot formed by their junction with a cord. Frequently attached to a curtain, cushion, walking-cane, umbrella, etc., or forming the pull of a blind-cord or bell-cord.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 219. A lace … Wyth tryed tasselez þerto tacched in-noghe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 487/1. Tassel, tassellus.
1480. Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 125. For the makyng of xvj laces and xvj tasshels for the garnysshing of divers of the Kinges bookes.
1530. Palsgr., 279/2. Tassell that hangeth at a thyng of sylke or golde, houppe doree.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. viii. 3. An horne of bugle small, Which hong adowne his side in twisted gold And tasselles gay.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, II. 35. All their tailes meete in the toppe of their head like a great Tassell.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Nice Valour, II. i. And smile, and wave a chair with comely grace too, Play with our tastle gently.
1706. Phillips (ed. 6), Tassels of a Coach, certain Silk-cords fasten’d on each side the Doors, which serve for a Stay to those that ride in it.
1718. Free-thinker, No 44, ¶ 10. A young Damsel … tied a Gold Cord with two large Tossels of Gold to his Sword.
1755. Connoisseur, No. 97, ¶ 1. The fellow-commoners, noblemen, and other rich students, whom … the courtesy of the University [of Cambridge] has honoured with a cap adorned with a gold tossel.
1792. in Hist. Broughton Place Ch. Edin. (1872), 20. A’ their taisels, vain an’ gay To mak us stare.
a. 1815. in G. Rose, Diaries (1860), II. 438. He put out his hand to pull the bell, but could not catch the tassel.
1849. Layard, Nineveh & Rem., I. iii. 49. A knotted girdle, ending in tassels, encircled the loins.
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. vii. 233. A cushion of crimson velvet … with gold tassels at the corners.
† b. Univ. slang. One who wears a cap with a tassel; an undergraduate. Cf. TUFT. Obs.
1828. Sporting Mag., XXI. 428. A capital front rank of ‘tassells’ … all eager for a ‘slap at a snob.’
3. Anything resembling or suggesting a tassel: a. In a tree or plant, a pendent catkin, blossom, flower, or bud; spec. the staminate (terminal) inflorescence of the maize-plant (U.S.): see also tassel-hyacinth in 5.
1646. Winthrop, New-Eng. (1826), II. 267. Great harm was done in corn … by a caterpillar…. They eat up first the blades of the stalk, then … the tassels, whereupon the ear withered.
1755. Gentl. Mag., Sept., 408/2. I found a fine stalk of Indian corn…; I cut off the male tossil as soon as it appeared, and there was produced a large ear, but no good grains upon it.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 61. In early spring, when the fragrant palms were on the willow, and the yellow tassels on the hazel.
a. 1835. Mrs. Hemans, Voice of Spring, iii. The larch has hung all his tassels forth.
1863. Kingsley, Water-Bab., i. 15. The bird-cherry with its tassels of snow.
1868. Mary Louise Cook, Ante Bellum, i. 16. Its [the brick mansion’s] closed shutters and freedom from outward adornment was typical of the misanthropical and selfish nature of its mistress, who could never see beauty, in any flower or shrub save a cotton bloom, corn tassel, or some bearded grain that promised to bring forth an abundant harvest by which her coffers might be filled.
1894. E. Eggleston, in Century Mag., April, 850. Our country people, when speaking of the male flower of the maize, preserve the broad vowel of their ancestors: ‘tossell’ it will remain in spite of the schoolmaster.
† b. A tuft; a fringe. Obs.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon., i. (1623), B iij. Besides their Soueraigne, the Bees haue also subordinate Gouernours…. For difference from the rest they beare for their crest a tuft or tossell, in some coloured yellow, in some murrey, in manner of a plume.
1672. Josselyn, New Eng. Rarities, 35. The other is nothing but Bones with Tassels hanging from their Jaws, with which they [whales] suck in their prey.
¶ 4. In med. (Anglo-) Latin, tassellus is given by Du Cange as used = fimbria, fringe of a cope or chasuble. Dr. Rock, Church of our Fathers (II. 32–), explains Du Cange’s quots. otherwise, and holds that tassellus had the following uses: a. The large thin sheet of gold or silver hanging behind on the cope; b. Any piece of gold or silver plate fastened to a vestment (copes and chasubles having ‘their tasselli sparkling with gems, hung all about them’); c. The ornaments on the back of episcopal gloves, when not done in embroidery, but made of silver or gold plate. By Dr. Rock himself, and some writers after him, the English word tassel has been used in senses b and c.
[c. 1188. Gerv. Cant., in Dugdale, Monast. Angl. (1655), I. 21. Duas capas de pallio cum tassellis auro paratis.
c. 1250. Matt. Paris, Vitæ Abb. S. Albani (1639), 55. Capam unam purpuream, morsu et tassellis charissimis redimitam.
a. 1252. Visit. Churches St. Paul’s, 14, in Camden Misc. (1895), IX. Item capa chori crocea cum duobus tassellis brusdatis Majestate et Maria.]
1849. Rock, Ch. our Fathers, II. 161, note. These tassels, as we said before, were thin plates of beaten gold or silver.
1887. Archæologia, L. II. 448. Upon the ‘tassels’ of the cope of Richard Ruffus were depicted the martyrdoms of St. Stephen and St. Thomas.
5. attrib. and Comb., as tassel-board, -drop, -maker, -making; tassel-hung adj.; tassel-cock, a game-cock that has a tuft of feathers in place of the comb; tassel-corn, (U.S.) the grain of maize borne abnormally on the ‘tassel’ (see 3 a); tassel-fish, an Australian fish, Polynemus quadridactylus, the pectoral fins of which terminate in a number of long threads; tassel-flower, (a) a tassel-like flower; spec. the orange, scarlet or yellowish blossom of Emilia sagittala (Cacalia coccinea), N.O. Compositæ, or the plant itself; (b) a shrub or tree of the genus Inga (Cent. Dict., 1891); tassel-grass, (a) a grass or (?) sedge with pendent spicules; (b) Ruppia maritima, an aquatic herb of which the seed-vessels are borne on clusters of lengthened pedicels; tassel-hyacinth, Muscari comosum, the stalk and flower of which resemble a tassel; also called purse-tassel, purple tassels (Miller, Plant-n., 1884); tassel-pondweed = tassel-grass (b) (ibid.); tassel-stitch, an embroidery stitch used in forming a fringe, loops of thread being left, which are afterwards cut; tassel-tree = TASSEL-BUSH (Cent. Dict., 1891); tassel-worm, a grub that feeds on the tassel of the maize-plant.
a. 1639. Spottiswood, Hist. Ch. Scot., VI. (1677), 407. Every Chair had a *Tassel-boord covered with fine Velvet.
1898. Pall Mall G., 3 Feb., 9/1. ‘Henny’ cocks … have won more battles … than any other birds, except it be the *‘tassel’ cock.
1883. E. L. Sturtevant, in Science, I. 234/1. (Variability of Maize) *Tassel-corn,—some of the kernels heavily, others slightly husked.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893), 150. A chased and figured fine gold brooch, with two pendent *tassel-drops.
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., *Tassel-fish, a thread-fish of Queensland, of the genus Polynemus.
1902. J. T. Critchell, in Encycl. Brit., XXXII. 110/2. Several species of the tassel fish (Polynemus macrocohoir), from which isinglass is procured, have been taken by fishermen.
1885. G. Allen, Babylon, vi. Do you know the *tassel-flower?
1810. Southey, Kehama, XIII. xi. *Tassel-grass, whose silvery feathers play O’ertopping the young trees.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 336. Sea Ruppia or Tassel-grass … has slender, much-branched stems … and long slender bristly leaves with sheaths.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., cii. The low love-language of the bird In native hazels *tassel-hung.
1902. Daily Chron., 9 Sept., 3/6. A number of the *tassel-makers were independently interviewed in their own homes while at work…. *Tassel-making is one of the three worst paid of the various home industries open to sweating.
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 194/2. *Tassel Stitch, a stitch used to make a looped fringe as an edging to Embroideries.
