Obs. Also cascanet, -kenet, -kinet, casknet. [Made up by some confusion of casket and carkanet, carcanet: perh. orig. a misprint for the latter, mistaken for a genuine word.]
A word common in the 17th c., which some appear to have identified with CARCANET, others to have used in the sense CASKET.
1607. Lingua, in Hazl., Dodsley, IX. 426. Such stir with sticks and combs, cascanets, dressings … necklaces, carcanets, rebatoes.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. ii. IV. i. (1651), 520. A chain of Pearl, a cascanet of Jewels.
1623. Webster, Devils Law Case, I. ii. Reach me the caskanet.
1638. Lanc. Wills (1861), III. 200. A caskenett wth red stones in it.
1641. W. Cartwright, Siege, II. vi. The sea yields pearls unto thy Caskinet.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 108. Wheras you please to call it the cabinet that holds the jewell of our times, you may rather term it a wicker casknet that keeps a jet ring. Ibid. (1651), Venice, 134. Onely women might weare a small Casknet about their necks.
1693. W. Freke, Sel. Ess., xxxii. 198. The Diamond that is true Brilliant … needs nothing of the Golden Caskanett, to set it off, or adorn it.
