Topknot

[f. TOP sb.¹ + KNOT sb.¹]

  1.  a. A knot or bow of ribbon worn on the top of the head by ladies towards the end of the 17th and in the 18th century; later, a bow of ribbon worn in a lace cap; ? also of flowers, feathers, etc.

c. 1686–8.  Roxb. Ball. (1890), VII. 21. The lofty Top-knots on her crown,… Makes me with care, alas! look down.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. xiv. (Roxb.), 12/1. Glasses … used by Lady’s … to see how to dress their heads, and set their top knotts on their fore heads vpright.

1716–20.  Lett. fr. Mist’s Jrnl. (1722), I. 51. Let me beg thee … to insert a polite History of Hoop-Petticoats, Top-Knots,… and all that.

1831.  Scott, Nigel, Introd. Obliged to compel … a fellow-knight or squire to restore the top-knot of ribbon which he had stolen from a fair damsel.

1910.  O. Barron, in Encycl. Brit., VII. 242/2. A cap [late 17th c.] whose top-knot or commode stood up stiff and fan-shaped.

  b.  A tuft of hair on the top or crown of the head of a person or animal; a knob of hair worn on the crown of the head in some styles of hair-dressing; also, a plume or crest of feathers or filaments on the head of a bird.

1700.  T. Brown, Amusem. Ser. & Com., 22. A … Trumpeter calling in the Rabble to see a Calf with Six Legs and a Top-knot.

1849.  D. J. Browne, Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855), 12. Unacquainted with fowls with topknots.

1867.  Baker, Nile Trib., iii. (1872), 41. A Bishareen Arab wears his hair in hundreds of minute plaits … surmounted by a circular bushy topknot upon the crown.

1894.  Gladstone, Odes of Horace, II. xi. 24. Her hair be dressed like Spartan maid, With comely top-knot upwards tied.

1902.  O. Wister, Virginian, i. Have you ever seen a cockatoo—the white kind with the top-knot—enraged by insult?

  c.  The head. slang.

1869.  E. Waugh, Hermit Cobbler, iii. I doubt it’s unsattle’t his top-knot a bit.

1889.  ‘J. S. Winter,’ Mrs. Bob (1891), 63. The little tip-tilted nose and curly top-knot.

  2.  transf. a. One who wears a topknot.

1697.  Isobel Wright, in Collect. Dying Test (1806), 42. Like gowkhorns, topeknots and I know not what to call them.

1909.  Bible in World, Feb., 60/1. Dirty children, and everywhere dreamy ‘Top-knots,’ as the Korean men are called because they wear their hair in a top-knot.

  b.  One of several species of small European flat-fish, with a tapering filament on the head.

1832.  Johnston, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, I. No. i. 7. The most remarkable [fishes] … were … the top-knot, the toothed gilt-head.

1843.  Zoologist, I. 106. Description of Muller’s Top-knot … taken from a fresh specimen.

1880.  Günther, Stud. Fishes, 555. ‘Bloch’s Top-knot,’ Rh[ombus] punctatus. Ibid., The ‘Top-knot’ (Ph[rynorhombus] unimaculatus) occurs occasionally on the south coast of England.

  3.  attrib., as topknot duck: see quot.; topknot pigeon, an Australian crested fruit-pigeon, Lopholaimus antarcticus.

1849.  D. J. Browne, Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855), 197. Also the ‘crested,’ or ‘topknot duck,’ a beautiful ornamental tame variety.

1891.  F. Adams, J. Webb’s End, I. ii. 33. Flying for a moment by a lovely, melodious top-knot pigeon.

  Hence Topknotted a., having a topknot.

1859.  Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, vi. The old top-knotted hens, scratching with their chicks among the straw.

1868.  Darwin, Anim. & Pl., I. viii. 295. There are topknotted canaries, and it is a singular fact, that, if two topknotted birds are matched, the young, instead of having very fine topknots, are generally bald, or even have a wound on their heads.