Searchable Lemmata: crista (L), creste (AF), creste (ME), creste (OScots) crest (MdE).
Alternate Forms: crece, creiste, cresta, cretez, cristam, criste.
1a(n.)
Headgear;
the top or crown of a helmet. Cf. sense 1b.(ante 700 - circa 1400)
Sex: Male Use: Military Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Head.
1b(n.)
Headgear;
on a helmet, a ridge or similar protuberance of metal, a plume or tuft of hair or feathers or some similar arrangement or material, often worn as a badge or cognizance. Crests could take the form of a protective, talismanic or personal device: on the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo and Coppergate helmets, a shock-absorber; on the Benty Grange and Wollaston helmets, a boar; on the great helms worn in tournaments in the later Middle Ages, animals made of cloth over a wooden frame.(ante 1275 still in current use)
1. E touz furent haubergez e haumez e o cretez sur lor testes, k’il peussent plus legerement estre conu
[AND VEG1 (47.22) 1272]
2. Me les centurions aveient escuz e heaumes de fer argenteez o crestes en travers, k'il feussent le meuz coneu de plus loins
[AND VEG1 (51.10) 1272]
4. [3.720] ... Forþe þe Grekis goon In-to þe feld ... And her stondardis, richely displaied, Brode baners an many fresche penoun-Ageyn þe wynde þat made a hidous soun ... [3.724] ... Þer men seie many crestis clere, And many tuft of gold & siluer schene.
Heroic, Poetic, Romance.
[MED Lydg.TB ((Aug A.4) 3.720-724) circa 1425]
5. [350] ... colerettus munitus auro, petris et perlis ... [352] ... unum bracale de laqueis de serico coopertum de samite rubeo munitum argento ... [355] ... una cresta cum clavis argenti pro eodem capello [ferreo]
Accounts.
[DMLBS Ac. Wardr. (pp. 350-355) 1300]
Sex: Male Use: Military Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: Yes
Body Parts: Head.
2(n.)
Accessory;
an excrescence on an ecclesiastical brooch (morse).(ante 1245 still in current use)
Sex: N/A Use: Ecclesiastical Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
3(n.)
Law/Custom;
centre line or fold in a piece of cloth or broadcloth.(circa 1450)
1. [56] Besechen mekely all the communes of this reaume: that howe by a statuit made in the parlement of Kyng Richard the .ij.[de], the yere of his reigne .xvij. it was ordined þat every man of his reaume myght make as wele clothes of kerseys, as other clothes, of soche lenght and brede as it liked hem, and the same clothes selle, paying the awnage and subsidie, and oþere duetes after the rate, that is to seme, of every clothe and ych pece of cloth after the rate, ony estatuit, ordenaunce, proclamation or defence to the contrarie made natwithstondyng; and þat the saide clothes shold be mesured by the awnours, as in the same statuit pleinly it appereth.
And after þat, in the parlement of Kyng Henry the .iiij.[te] at Westmynstre þe first day of Marche the yeere of his reigne þe .vij. hit was ordeigned and stabled, that clothe of colour shold conteigne in lenght .xxviij. yerdes, mette by the crest, and in brede .vi. quarters di', as in the said statuit it is conteigned. And if the makers of clothes made her clothes of lesse lenght or brede, that the clothes shold be forfayted to the kyng, as in the same statuit it appereth; and also in the parliament of the said Kyng Henry the .iiij.[te], the yere of his reigne .xi. hit was ordined þat proclamation shold be made þurghoute the roialme, þat no persone makyng soche manere cloth and doseins withine the said reaume, þe same clothes or doseins ne shall nat takke ne plyte, afore the awnour have duely made his serche and oversight of soche clothes and doseins, that thei holde her lenght and brede, by the said last estatut ordeigned, up peine of forfaiture of the same; upon which estatutes made in tyme of the said Kyng Henry, diverses oppinions by divers justices and barons of the eschequer been hold, þat no clothe shold be made but of the lenght and brede aforeseid, except soche clothes as been comprehended in the same statutes, as kerseys and rayes, which shold be grete hynderyng and utter destruction to the seid communes þat erne used to make clothes called streytes of tyme oute of mynde. ...
Legal.
[LexP PROME (Hen. VI: Parl. of July 1433, item 56 (part 1)) 1433]
2. That every hole Wollen Cloth called brode Cloth ... after almanere rakkyng, streynyng, or teyntyng therof ... conteigne in lengh [sic] xxiiii yerdes ... to be mesured by the Creeste of the same Cloth.
Legal.
[MED RParl. (5.501a) 1463/1464]
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
4(n.)
Furnishing;
canopy (over a tomb); a pall-frame.(circa 1200)
1. [148] ... ad cristam faciendam pretiosissimam super feretrum gloriosi martyris AEdmundi studium suum convertit ... [150v] ... celerarius solet accipere theloneum de lino tempore rotationis, sc. j bottam de qualibet *cerna
Historic.
[DMLBS BRAKELOND (148-150v.) circa 1200]
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: Yes
Body Parts: N/A.
