sb. Also 6–7 tyara. [a. L. tiāra, a. Gr. τιάρα τιάρας, Ionic τιήρης, of unknown origin. So It. tiara the papal crown.]
1. The raised head-dress or high peaked cap worn by the Persians and some other eastern peoples, varying in shape according to the rank of the wearer; a kind of turban.
1555. W. Watreman, Fardle of Facions, II. v. 148. The rounde cappe, whiche thei cal Tiara … passed from them [Medes] to the Persians.
1696. Phillips (ed. 5), Tiara, a high sharp pointed Cap, worn by Sovereign Princes, and those of the Blood Royal, among the Persians.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), II. 378. The Persians wore no helmets, but only their common caps, which they called tiaras.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xxxiii. IV. 300. The upright tiara, the privileged head-dress of the Persian kings.
2. A high ovate-cylindrical or dome-shaped diadem worn by the pope, surmounted by the orb and cross of sovereignty, and encircled with three crowns symbolic of triple dignity, and usually richly wrought with jewels; often called the triple tiara or triple crown. Hence transf. the position or dignity of pope, the papacy. Also fig.
[1616: see TIAR 2.]
1645. Evelyn, Diary, 18 Jan. There were divers of the Pope’s pantofles … also his tyara, or triple crown.
1700. Astry, trans. Saavedra-Faxardo, II. 316. This Tiara, or Triple-Crown, is the Touch-stone on which other Crowns are tried.
1845. S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., III. v. II. 173. When Pope Clement VII came to the tiara, he revoked all grants of this nature.
1860. Hawthorne, Marb. Faun, xxxiv. A figure of a pope, arrayed in his pontifical robes, and crowned with the tiara.
b. Her. A bearing supposed to represent the Pope’s tiara; also called triple crown.
1780. Edmondson, Heraldry, II. Gloss., Tiara, or Triple Crown, with clouds in base issuing rays, being part of the arms of the Drapers’ Company.
1894. Parker’s Gloss. Her., Tiara, the pope’s triple crown occurs in the arms of one Company.
3. The head-dress of the Jewish High Priest.
1868. Marriott, Vest. Chr., 80. The Tiara … was at once a covering and an ornament to the head of the High Priest.
1877. C. Geikie, Christ, lviii. (1879), 709. Was not the tiara worn by a fierce Sadducee?
1890. P. H. Hunter, After the Exile, xiii. 250. The tiara might be worn with safety, while the crown was impossible.
4. An ornamental frontal, coronet, or headband.
In modern use, a richly jewelled ornament worn by ladies in the hair, above the forehead.
[1660, 1667: see TIAR 3.]
1718. Prior, Pleasure, 507. A bright tiara, round her forehead tied.
1761. H. Walpole, Lett. to H. S. Conway, 9 Sept. Her tiara of diamonds was very pretty.
1895. Rider Haggard, Heart of World, xxi. On her head was set a tiara of perfect pearls.
b. fig. (Cf. crown, diadem.)
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. ii. She [Venice] looks a sea Cybele … with her tiara of proud towers.
1862. Goulburn, Pers. Relig., I. iv. (1873), 35. The tiara of the rainbow.
1880. Jas. Legge, Mem. J. Legge, iv. 45. Truth and love are the double tiara that should rest on his brow.
5. Zool. A mitre-shell, or a genus of mitre-shells.
1835. Swainson, Elem. Mod. Conchol., 14. Tiara Sw. Mouth narrowed at the base; with an internal upper groove. Ibid. (1840), Treat. Malacology, I. iv. 112. The real type of the Mitrinæ is our genus Tiara, and not that of Mitra, as formerly supposed.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIV. 420/2. Tiara,… Swainson’s name for a genus of ‘Mitrinæ’ … which are termed ‘Mitres’ by collectors.
6. attrib. and Comb., as tiara-crowned, -like, -shaped adjs.; tiara night, a night on which tiaras (sense 4) are worn at the opera.
1792. R. Cumberland, Calvary (1803), II. 123. Round his brows A cypress wreath tiara-like he wore.
1868. J. A. Wylie, Road to Rome, v. 45. Popery—from its tiara-crowned chief to its sandal-shod friars.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 3 June, 2/1. The guns sat each in its own little tiara-shaped entrenchment.
1900. Daily Express, 28 June, 1/1. The Opera-house presented a brilliant spectacle last night, the ladies in the audience … having made it a ‘tiara’ night in expectation of the Khedive’s presence.
Hence Tiara v., trans. to adorn with or as with a tiara; Tiaraed, -ra’d, ppl. a., adorned with a tiara.
1812. Milman, Martyr of Antioch, 128. The high tiara’d Magian.
1837. New Monthly Mag., LI. 312. A pyramid of pilauf literally crowns, or rather tiaras the feast.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, iii. (1872), 79. All the Tiaraed and Diademed of the world.
