carcanet

C3A1R1C3A1N1E1T1
UK/ˈkɑːkənɛt/US/ˈkɑɹkənɛt/

noun

A richly decorative collar.

RareScrabble 12

Meanings

nouncarcanet (plural carcanets)

plural carcanets · alternative carkanet

  1. archaicA richly decorative collar.

    Like stones of worth they thinly placed are, / Or captain jewels in the carcanet.

    1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet LII”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC
    3 more examples

    Lo you! let me have a blue robe, and—search for the ruby carcanet, which was part of the King of Cyprus's ransom—it is either in the steel-casket, or somewhere else.

    1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume IV (The Talisman), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 48

    [H]e cared nothing for curiously woven shrouds, and feathered mantles, and carcanets of pearl beads, and jars of quaint pottery […]

    1891, Charles Egbert Craddock [pseudonym; Mary Noailles Murfree], In the “Stranger People’s” Country […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC

    There flying Elwing came to him, / and flame was in the darkness lit; / more bright than light of diamond / the fire upon her carcanet.

    1954 July 29, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings, London: George Allen & Unwin, →OCLC

Origin

  1. Frenchcarcan
  2. Englishcarcanet

From French carcan + -et.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

carcanet. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/carcanet

MLA

“carcanet.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/carcanet. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “carcanet,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/carcanet.

Source: carcanet on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.