Tom Bombadil
#618
What does tressure mean? I never heard that word and I can't find it in dictionaries and the internet too. Is it a hairnet?
Gloss “carrëa” by Eldamo Import
carrëa
noun. tressure, tressure, *headdress
Tamas Ferencz
#620
According to dictionaries the main meaning now is in heraldry, but Tolkien probably used it in its original sense. From m-w.com:
Definition of tressure
1 : a narrow orle usually enriched with fleurs-de-lis
2 : an inner encircling ornamentation on a coin or medal bordering the device The plack … had as obverse a crowned shield in a tressure of arches … — Coins, 1975
History and Etymology for tressure
Middle English tressour, from tressour, tressure band for the hair, headdress, from Middle French tresseor, tressure, from tresser to tress + -or, -ure
A noun for “tressure” in notes from the late 1960s derived from ✶cas-raya = √KAS “head” + √RAY “net, lace” (VT42/12). Given this word’s etymology, Tolkien was probably using “tressure” with its Middle English sense = “headdress”.