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  1. biretta love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Ecclesiastical A stiff square cap with three or four ridges across the crown. Birettas are worn especially by Roman Catholic clergy and are black for priests, purple for bishops, and red for cardinals.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Originally, any small cap worn as distinctive of a trade or profession; afterward, a scholastic cap, or such as was worn indoors by members of the learned professions; now, in the Roman Catholic Church, the ecclesiastical cap. This last is square, and has three and sometimes four horns or projections on top, crossing it at equal angles, and frequently having a tuft or tassel where the horns meet in the middle. For priests and the lower orders its color is black, and for bishops also, at least in Rome, though elsewhere they commonly wear one of violet, corresponding with the color of the cassock; for cardinals it is red. It seems to have been introduced in offices of the church when the amice ceased to be worn over the head in proceeding to and from the altar at mass.
  2. n. BY extension, a Tunis cap; a smoking-cap.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A square cap, originally with four ridges across the top, surmounted by a tuft, worn by Roman Catholic clergy (and by some in the Anglican Church). A three-sided biretta is worn by Roman Catholic clergy for liturgical celebrations.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Same as berretta.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a stiff cap with ridges across the crown; worn by Roman Catholic clergy

Etymologies

  1. From Italian 'biretta' (Wiktionary)
  2. Italian berretta, from Old Provençal berret, cap, from Late Latin birrus, hooded cloak, probably of Celtic origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Etymologically, the word biretta is Italian in origin and would more correctly be written beretta (cf. however the French barette and the Spanish bireta).”

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 2: Assizes-Browne

  • “The biretta is the sign of an ecclesiastical pontifical degree.”

    Archive 2008-04-20

  • “An atelier repetition of this fine original is No. 166 in the Vienna Gallery; the only material variation traceable in this last-named example being that in lieu of St. Ambrose, wearing a kind of biretta, we have St. Jerome bareheaded.”

    The Earlier Work of Titian

  • “We then moved onto "spin the biretta" - each server is handed the biretta after it has been spun around in the air, and has to hand it to the priest the correct way.”

    Archive 2009-06-01

  • “Afterwards, the boys pinched my biretta to see if they could land it on the head of the Monsignore as he was later dignified.”

    Archive 2009-05-01

  • “The fake priest went past, Benedetti, wearing a lumber jacket and a black biretta and carrying a breviary.”

    Simon & Schuster: Underworld

  • “Szoka, seventy-eight and nearly hairless under his cardinal's red biretta, proudly showed me a bookcase that contained the teachings and writings of John Paul — forty-plus volumes bound in red cloth — and nothing else.”

    The Year of two Popes

  • “For example, as above, the traditional theology biretta of the Angelicum is totally white.”

    Archive 2008-04-20

  • “E.g. the *traditional* Angelicum biretta is entirely white incl. piping and pom.”

    Archive 2008-04-20

  • “Those with degrees from a non-pontifical university cannot wear an academic biretta, they wear the cap or morterboard of their degree granting institution.”

    Archive 2008-04-20

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hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. cap

same context (21)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. scapular
  2. chimere
  3. rochet
  4. mitre
  1. capote
  2. basset
  3. barrette
  4. skullcap
  1. tarboosh
  2. cassock
  3. caul
  4. coif
  1. vizard
  2. cummerbund
  3. byssus
  4. cotta
  1. priestcraft
  2. tippet
  3. salvia
  4. surplice
  1. bornouse

reverse dictionary (5)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. beret
  1. beretta
  1. berretta
  1. birretta
  1. barret

tags (3)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. hats
  1. headwear
  1. cvcvccv

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Comments

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  • knitandpurl "Julian was hanging up his biretta on a peg in the narrow hall."
    Excellent Women by Barbara Pym, p 13 of the Plume paperback edition Mar 11, 2012

  • bilby "Joseph, his hands rough as wood, lapping into folds the long crimson sash made in Rome, then carefully placing the crimson biretta on top."
    - 'The Colour Of Blood', Brian Moore. Jan 2, 2008

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‘biretta’ has been looked up 1892 times, loved by 1 person, added to 17 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 9.