Forms: pl. 3 tressene, 4– tresses, (5 -is, trissis); sing. 4–6 tresse, (6 Sc. tres), 6– tress. See also TRACE sb.3 [a. F. tresse, in OF. tresce a plait or braid of hair (12th c. in Littré, etc.) = Pr. tressa, treza, It. treccia, beside the vb. F. tresser, OF. trecier, It. trecciare ‘to plaite, to tie … vp in tresses, as womens haires are’ (Florio). In Sc. and some Eng. dialects this appears also in the forms trais(s and trace: see TRACE sb.3, v.3 The OF., Pr., and It. sbs. point to a late L. or Romanic tricia, trecia, which appears in med.L.: see Du Cange.
For the derivation, Diez favors a form *trichea (or *trichia) f. Gr. τρίχα threefold, taking the primary sense to be ‘a triple plait.’ Hatz.-Darm. take tresse as vbl. sb. from the vb. tresser.]
1. A plait or braid of the hair of the head, usually of a woman: cf. TRACE sb.3 1.
13[?]. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 478. With both honden here yaulew here Out of the tresses sche hit tere.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 191. Hir yelow heer was broyded in a tresse Bihynde hir bak, a yerde longe I gesse.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 3150. Hire hede vn-helid was on hiȝe & hild all in trissis.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 502/1. Tresse, of heere, trica.
1530. Palsgr., 282/2. Tresse of heer, tresse.
1581. Pettie, Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., III. (1586), 136 b. Certain women, whereof one had her tresses crossed in such sort vpon her head, that they made the likenesse of two hearts bound together.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. ix. 19. Her yellow golden heare Was trimly woven and in tresses wrought.
1613. R. Cawdrey, Table Alph. (ed. 3), Tresses, lockes of hayre broyded vp.
1717. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Lady Rich, 1 April. Their beautiful hair [was] divided into many tresses, hanging on their shoulders.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer., I. II. 92. Their black hair … was bound in tresses around their heads.
1793. Earl Macartney, Jrnl. Emb. China, 4 Aug. [Their hair] is platted in a tress, and falls down the back.
b. (By extension) A long lock of hair (esp. that of a woman), without any sense of its being plaited or braided; mostly in pl. tresses. (The usual current sense.)
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 325/82. Heo drovȝ of hire tressene and caste a-wei.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, I. 230. A queynt array As she had ben an hunteresse With wynde blowynge vpon hir tresse.
c. 1450. Merlin, xviii. 298. She was all discheuelee in her heer, and Taurus hir heilde be the tresses and drough hir after his horse.
1595. Weever, Epigr., IV. xxii. (1599), E vj. Rose-checkt Adonis with his amber tresses.
1696. Phillips (ed. 5), Tresses, said of the Hair, when it hangs down in dishevell’d Locks.
1717. Pope, Sappho to Phaon, 85. Nor braids of gold the varied tresses bind, That fly disorder’d with the wanton wind.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. I. vi. 75. Her long dishevelled tresses hanging to the ground.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, lxvi. 47. What shall a weak tress do, when powers so mighty resist not?
c. transf. and fig. (and in fig. context). Applied to long leafy shoots or tendrils, rays of the sun, etc.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., i. In Aquary, Cinthia the clere Rynsid hir tressis.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. IV. Handicrafts, 139. Somtimes the Plane, somtimes the Vine they shear, Choosing their fairest tresses.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 145. My sonnes … will by the tresses snatch The fittest time.
1641. J. Trappe, Theol. Theol., v. 205. The radiant tresses of the sun.
1810. T. L. Peacock, Genius of Thames, 65. The weeping willow droops to lave Its leafy tresses in the wave.
1875. Tristram, Moab, ii. 29. Luxuriant tresses of maiden-hair fern.
d. (Our) Lady’s tresses: see LADY’S TRACES.
† 2. A flat plait or braid (of interwoven threads, fibers, hairs, rushes, straw, etc.) Cf. TRACE sb.3 2, 3. Obs.
1491. Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de W., 1495), I. xxxvi. 38 b/2. Saynt Anthonye made a tresse for to make a lytyll basket.
1542. Inv. Roy. Wardrobe (1815), 82. Ane cott of variand taffatie with ane small walting tres of gold [cf. 1539, p. 32 trais of gold].
1550. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., IX. 455. Item, xvj elnis tressis put on the saittis of the saidis chiris.
† 3. Her. = TRESSURE 2. Cf. TRACE sb.1 10. Obs. rare.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., I. Hist. Scot., 358/2. They beare in their armes the Lion and Lillyes, wyth the tresse in fourme and fashion as the King of Scotlande beareth hys.
4. attrib. and Comb., as tress-lifting, -like, -shorn, -topped adjs.
1819. Keats, Lamia, I. 207. Down through *tress-lifting waves the Nereids fair Wind into Thetis’ bower.
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, xv. 277. Th’orphane … Whose *tresse-like haire, and eyes still dropping pearle.
1845. Kitto, Cycl. Bibl. Lit., s.v. Babylon, It bears spreading and ever-green branches,… adorned with long tress-like tendrils.
1866. J. B. Rose, trans. Ovid’s Met., VIII. 234. And matrons Eveninan, *tresses-shorn.
1871. Browning, Balaust., 1323. Past the pines *Tress-topped.
Hence Tressful a., full of or fully furnished with tresses; Tressless a., having no tresses; Tresslet, a little tress.
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. III. Magnif., 734. Pharo’s faire daughter … Was queintly dressing of her *Tress-full head Which round about her to the ground did spread.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XX. iii. (1873), IX. 51. The Bernburg Officers, tragically *tressless in their hats.
1882. J. Walker, Scotch Poems, 136. A glossy *tresslet of her lint-white hair.
