basinet, basnet Obs. exc. Hist.
(ˈbæsɪnɪt, ˈbæsnɪt)
Forms: 3–9 basnet, 4–9 bacinet, basenet, 9 basinet, bassinet, bascinet; also 4 basinett, 4–6 basenett(e, 5 bacenett, basnite, -nette, 4–5 basynet, bacynet, -ette, 5–7 bassenet.
[a. OF. bacinet, bassiné, bassinet (= Sp. bacinete, It. bacinetto, med.L. basinetum, bacinetum), dim. of bacin basin: see -et1.]
A small, light, steel headpiece, in shape somewhat globular, terminating in a point raised slightly above the head, and closed in front with a ventail or visor; when used in action without the ventail, as was frequently the case in England, the great ‘helm,’ resting on the shoulders, was worn over it.
| c 1300 K. Alis. 2234 Helm and basnet..The scharpe sweord carf bothe. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 5577 Þorw helm, & coyphe, & bacynet, þe swerd goþ forþ. 1391 Test. Ebor. (1836) I. 151 Unum melius basenett cum ventayll. c 1440 Morte Arth. 906 A bacenett burneschte of sylver. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. lx. 81 Such a stroke..that their basenettes were clouen. 1581 T. Newton Seneca's Thebais 51 On head thy Basnet tye. 1611 J. Guillim Heraldry iv. xv. 234 Their bassenets or sculles. 1808 Scott Marm. vi. xxi, My basnet to a prentice cap, Lord Surrey's o'er the Till! 1843 Lytton Last Bar. i. ix, Thou talkest of bassinets and hauberks. 1856 R. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 154 Sir Rudolf's new bascinet with the beaked ventaille. 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. viii. 127 The basinet was considered to be incomplete without..a mail defence for the neck and shoulders, called the camail. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xvii. 543 note, Aketons, bacinets, gauntlets. |
| fig. 1496 Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) viii. viii. 332 The amyt betokeneth the basynet of helthe, that is hope of the lyfe that is to come. |
See also bassinet, bassinate.