Everyday LifeGreek → English
Tiara
/tiˈɑːrə/noun
A jewelled semicircular band worn on the head, or the triple crown of the pope.
The Greek roots
τιάρα
tiára
Persian headdress
Literally: “the Persian hat”
Follow a root:τιάρα1 word
The story of the word
The Greeks did not invent this word; they took it from Persia, where it named the tall felt hat that stood upright on the king's head and flopped over on everyone else's. Herodotus uses it throughout for Persian headgear, and Latin passed it westward. The papal triple crown took the name in the Middle Ages, and only in the nineteenth century did it come down to a jewelled band worn at a ball.
- How it travelled
- Persian → Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
diademcoronet
In a sentence
The tiara had been in the family since 1890 and nobody could remember the last time it left the bank.
A paper tiara came free with the party hats.