Other forms: tassels
A tassel is a hanging bunch of threads used as a trimming. Bound at the top and loose below.
They finish curtains, cushions, bookmarks and academic caps, and the tassel on a graduation cap is moved from one side to the other at the moment of graduating in American ceremonies. Uniforms and flags use them for ceremony. The word is a diminutive from an old French word for a clasp. The adjective tasselled describes anything carrying them, and a tasselled loafer is a particular kind of shoe.
1nountasselA hanging bunch of threads used as a decorative trim.
“The curtains had a gold tassel at each corner.”
A tassel was a little dice. Latin tāxillus meant a small cube, from tālus, the ankle bone that ancient dice were cut from. How it arrived at a bunch of threads is anybody's guess.
Latin
tāxillus — small cube
Old French
tassel
Middle English
tassel
English, today
tassel
Built from
From Middle English tassel, from Old French tassel, from Latin tāxillus (“small cube”), from tālus (“ankle”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA