tresses

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,593 of 15,258leans spokendated · an editor’s judgement

Tresses are long flowing hair. A word from romance and shampoo advertisements rather than from ordinary speech.

It is always plural and it is always admiring, which is why it survives almost entirely in poetry, fairy tales and marketing. Nobody describes their own hair this way without smiling. Strictly a tress is a lock or a plait of hair, and the plural came to mean the whole head of it. Rapunzel is the story the word belongs to more than any other.

Definitions of tresses

1nountressesLong flowing hair.C1
“The portrait shows her with tresses down to her waist.”

Where it comes from

Ancient Greek
τριχία — rope
Vulgar Latin
*trichia
Old French
tresce
Middle English
tresse
English
tress
English, today
tresses

Built from

θρίξ · Ancient Greek — hair

tress comes from Middle English tresse, from Old French tresce, of uncertain origin; possibly from Vulgar Latin trichia, from Ancient Greek τριχία (“rope”), from θρίξ (“hair”). Compare French tresse, Italian treccia.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire

First appears in chapter 15 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

tresses in the wild

Autumn lady's-tresses are legally protected in Belgium, UK and the Netherlands, and in some regions of France.
Spiranthes spiralis
There are two varieties recognized: S. lacera var. gracilis - Southern slender ladies' tresses, flowers more densely arranged in spiral, blooming later (late-July through August).
Spiranthes lacera
S. lacera var. lacera - Northern slender ladies' tresses, flowers more loosely arranged in spiral, blooming earlier (mid-July).
Spiranthes lacera

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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