Forms: 6 cauetzan, 7 cavezan; cavechin; 7–9 caveson, 8 cavezon, (cavesion, 9 cavason), 7– cavesson. [a. F. caveçon, ad. It. cavezzone, augmentative of cavezza halter (cf. Sp. cabezon shirt-collar). Ital. had another derivative form, cavezzana, whence the earlier Eng. form cavezan. Diez associates It. cavezza, OF. chevece, with Sp. cabeza, Pr. cabeissa head, repr. L. capitia, from capitium ‘head-covering,’ later ‘the opening in a tunic for the head.’]
A kind of nose-band of iron, leather, or wood, ‘fixed to the nostrils of a horse, to curb or render him manageable through the pain it occasions’ (Stocqueler, Mil. Encycl.).
1598. Florio, Cauezzana, a cauetzan or headstraine.
1611. Cotgr., Camorre, a sharpe and double-edged Cavesson of yron, for an vnruly horses nose. Ibid., Caveçon, a cauechin, or cauesson, for a horses nose.
1618. M. Baret, Horsemanship, Cures 38. Extreame commanding bits and tormenting cauezans.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Author 17. That Pegasus … which others rather chuse to ride rather in a Caveson.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., I. s.v. Colt, The Cavesion being placed upon the tender Gristle of his Nose.
1837. Gambler’s Dream, III. 201. Throw in another grain or two of sense and talent, to the existing endowments of created Eves, and the Adams would have no more chance with them than a colt in a cavason.
1840. Blaine, Encycl. Rur. Sports, 287. The cavesson is the first active restraint applied to all saddle horses.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, II. I. viii. 451.
