[a. (? through F. fez) Turk. fes, fês; the name of the town Fez (in Morocco) is spelt in the same way, and it is alleged that the fez is so called from the town, where formerly it was chiefly manufactured.]
A skull-cap formerly of wool, now of felt, of a dull crimson color, in the form of a truncated cone, ornamented with a long black tassel; the national head-dress of the Turks.
1802–3. trans. Pallas’ Trav. (1812), II. 347. The clergy and the aged wear under it [a high cap] the Fez, or a red, woven calotte.
1851. Layard, Pop. Acc. Discov. Nineveh, viii. 196. Round his fez, and the lower part of his face, were wound endless folds of white linen, which gave him the appearance of a patient emerging from a hospital.
1863. Speke, Discov. Nile, 261. I gave each of my men a fez cap, and a piece of red blanket to make up military jackets.
1884. J. T. Bent, The Capital of the Cyclades, in Macm. Mag., L. Oct., 426/2. One highly-painted green brig with canvas bulwarks was unloading shaddocks from Naxos, and the island sailors with their blue baggy trousers, red fezes, and bare legs looked highly picturesque as they carried baskets of the freight along plank which united the boat with the quay.
Hence Fezzed ppl. a., furnished with or wearing a fez. Also Fezzy a., nonce-wd., in same sense.
1891. George N. Curson, Monasteries of the Levant Revisited, in The New Review, Dec., 517. The Ottoman Government is represented by a governor at the last-named place, and by fezzed officials of the gendarme type at each monastery or monastic landing-place.
1876. G. Meredith, Beauch. Career, I. iv. 63. He clapped hands for the fezzy defenders of the border fortress.
