doublet
(ˈdʌblɪt)
Forms: 4–7 dublett(e, 4–8 dublet, (5 doubelet, -led, dobbelet, dobel(l)ett(e, dobelat, doplyt), 5–6 doblet, -ett(e, doublette, dow-, (6 Sc. dowblat, dwiplat), 6–7 doublett, dowblet, 4– doublet.
[a. F. doublet (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) something folded, a furred coat, etc., f. double + dim. suffix -et.]
1. a. A close-fitting body-garment, with or without sleeves, worn by men from the 14th to the 18th centuries. (Rarely applied to a similar garment worn by women.) Obs. exc. Hist.
(The doublet had many changes of fashion, being at one time with, at another without, short skirts. In its various sleeved and sleeveless forms, it was the prototype of the modern coat, jacket, and waistcoat.)
| 1326 Wardr. Acc. Edw. II, 26/3 Unus doublet pro corpore Regis. 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 571 Dubbed in a dublet of a dere tars. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xiii. 115 They hadd couertly vndre theyr lytel doublettes rasers. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI (an. 15) 135 That it was ynough for a woman, to judge the difference betwene the shurte and the dublet of her husbande. 1627 Drayton Agincourt, etc. 158 Dublet, and Cloke, with Plush and Veluet linde. 1740 Gray Let. Poems (1775) 83 We should have taken it for a red sattin doublet. 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 133 George Fox..travelled as a missionary..buttoned up in a leathern doublet with sleeves. |
b. phr. doublet and hose; esp. as the typical masculine attire; also, as a sort of undress, or dress for active pursuits, implying absence of the cloak worn for warmth and protection, or of the gown, coat, or cassock befitting age or dignity.
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. i. 46 And youthful still, in your doublet and hose, this raw-rumaticke day? 1600 ― A.Y.L. ii. iv. 6 Doublet and hose ought to show it selfe coragious to pettycoate. 1603–4 Const. & Canons Eccl. §74 That in public they go not in their Doublet and Hose, without Coats or Cassocks. a 1654 Selden Table-T. (Arb.) 38 One man can go in Doublet and Hose, when another Man cannot be without a Cloak. 1858 Longfellow M. Standish i. 3 Clad in doublet and hose, and boots of Cordovan leather. |
† c. doublet of defence (or fence): a body-armour composed of metal plates covered with cloth or leather; = brigandine. Obs.
| 1418 E.E. Wills (1882) 37 A Doubeled of defence couered with red Leþer. 1463 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (1841) 158 Ffusten..ffor to make doblettys off fence. 1488 Will of Sharnebourne (Somerset Ho.), Doblette of fence. 1885 Fairholt's Costume in Eng. (ed. 3) Gloss. s.v. Brigandine. |
† d. iron doublet or stone doublet: a prison. Obs. slang.
| 1698 Fryer Acc. E. Ind. & P. 318 We say metaphorically, when any is in Prison, He has a Stone Doublet on. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Iron-doublet, a Prison. c 1720 Lett. fr. Mist's Jrnl. (1722) I. 227 He that will not pay his Debts when a few good Words will ballance his Accounts with his Creditor, deserves to wear a Stone Doublet all his Life-time. |
2. a. One of two things precisely alike or in some way identical: one of a pair or couple; a duplicate copy; pl. twins. spec. b. Philol. One of two words (in the same language) representing the same ultimate word but differentiated in form, as cloak and clock, fashion and faction. c. Printing. A word or phrase set up a second time by mistake = double n. 3 h (Webster, 1864).
| [1549 Latimer 4th Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 107 For as good preachers be worthy double honour: so vnpreaching prelates be worthy double dishonoure: They muste be at theyr doublets.] 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 203 Doublettes, is when we rehearse one and the same worde twise together. Ah wretche, wretche, that I am. 1681 Grew Museum (J.), Those doublets on the side of his tail seem to add strength to the muscles which move the tail-fins. 1869 Contemp. Rev. X. 160 Doublets, i.e. double and divergent derivations from a common root, as, for example, raison and ration. 1881 Skeat Etymol. Dict. 175 Thus dole is a doublet of deal. 1885 Athenæum 9 May 594 [In] Hebrew grammar..there is a special dual form to express doublets. 1896 T. L. de Vinne in Moxon Mech. Exerc. I. p. xviii, Typographic peculiarities have been followed, even to gross faults, like doublets. |
d. A story or saying which occurs in two different biblical contexts, and hence is regarded as derived from distinct sources.
| 1891 F. P. Badham Formation of Gospels 11, I subjoin tables of the doublets in S. Matthew, S. Mark and S. Luke. 1899 J. C. Hawkins Horae Synopticae ii. §iv. 64 The ‘doublets’, or repetitions of the same or closely similar sentences in the same Gospel, are of great value in supplying hints as to the sources and composition of the Gospels. 1906 F. C. Burkitt Gospel Hist. 14 One of the really striking features about the narrative in Genesis..is the number of Doublets, i.e. stories told twice over. Ibid. 163 At the first glance they are real doublets; i.e. different accounts of the same event drawn from different sources. 1927 A. H. McNeile Introd. N.T. 64 Isolated sayings in Mark which occur in more or less similar forms in two passages... These are often called ‘doublets’. |
3. Gaming. (pl.) a. The same number turning up on both the dice at a throw.
| c 1450 Chester Pl. (Shaks. Soc.) II. 56 Nowe will I begyn For to caste..Take heare, I dare laye, Are dublettes, in good faye. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 270 He..seldom fails to throw doublets. 1855 E. Smedley Occult Sc. 246 Doublets must occasionally turn up if we are always casting the dice. |
† b. An old game at tables or backgammon.
| 1611 Cotgr., Renette, a game at Tables of some resemblance with our Doublets, or Queenes Game. 1628 Earle Microcosm. (Arb.) 71 At tables he reaches not beyond doublets. 1684 Otway Atheist v. i. Wks. 1728 II. 85 Farewel..Seven and Eleven, Sink-Tray and the Doublets. |
4. A pair or couple. spec. a. Sporting. Two birds killed at once with a double-barrelled gun.
| 1816 P. Hawker Diary (1893) I. 146, I had eight doublets and bagged both my birds every time. 1837 Ibid. II. 129 Five glorious doublets. |
b. A combination of two simple lenses.
| 1831 Brewster Optics xli. 342 Dr. Wollaston's microscopic doublet..consists of two plano-convex lenses. 1844 A. Gray Lett. (1893) 325, I can..see the pollen-tubes with even my three-line doublet! 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., Sir John Herschel's doublet consists of a double convex lens..and of a plano-concave lens..It is intended for a simple microscope. 1880 Nature XXI. 411 The object glasses..are doublets with a positive lens of quartz and a negative of Iceland spar. |
c. A pair of associated lines occurring close together in a spectrum.
| 1897 J. R. Rydberg in Astrophysical Jrnl. VI. 235 The constituents of the doublets and triplets of the nebulous series are built up after exact rules,..while the constituents of the sharp series, so far as we know, are simple lines. 1926 R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity v. 54 Just like the D-line, the strongest rhodium line also consists of a doublet. 1961 Adv. Spectrosc. II. 228 The structure which is stable at low temperatures shows a doublet in the infra-red..as well as in the Raman spectrum. |
d. The pair of words at either end of a word-ladder; in pl. = word-ladder s.v. word n. 29 a.
| 1879 ‘L. Carroll’ in Vanity Fair 29 Mar. 185/2 The word ‘head’ may be changed into ‘tail’ by interposing the words ‘heal, teal, tell, tall’. I call the two given words a ‘Doublet’... The easiest ‘Doublets’ are those in which the consonants in one word answer to consonants in the other, and the vowels to vowels. 1945 [see word-ladder s.v. word n. 29 a]. 1984 T. Augarde Oxf. Guide Word Games xxi. 188 All these examples illustrate one of the constant principles of Doublets: that the words being joined should either be opposites (hate, love) or otherwise connected in some way (seven, eight). |
5. A counterfeit jewel composed of two pieces of crystal or glass cemented together with a layer of colour between them, or of a thin slice of a gem cemented on a piece of glass or inferior stone.
| 1449 Churchw. Acc. St. George, Stamford (Nichols 1797) 133 A gret croun..garnished with stones clepyd dublets. c 1530 Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 45 Doblettes of glasse yeue a gret euidence, Thyng countirfet wyl faile at assay. 1649 Lovelace Poems Ded., Take my Garnet-Dublet Name. 1758 Monthly Rev. 348 Various methods of counterfeiting gems..by coloured glass, pastes, doublets. 1887 Pall Mall G. 28 Sept. 5/1 ‘Doublets’ as they are called..are topazes having a thin slice of diamond laid on the visible surface..the composite stone being sold as a diamond. |
6. Her.
| 1830 Robson Brit. Herald III. Gloss., Traverse or Doublet, is a bearing..resembling the cheveron, which issues from two angles of one side of the escutcheon, and meets in a point about the middle of the other side; but without touching the line of the shield with its point. |
7. Billiards. (See quot.)
| 1856 Crawley Billiards (1859) 18 The Doublet..is produced by striking your own or the object ball against one of the cushions, so as to make it rebound to an opposite pocket or ball. |
8. attrib. and Comb. (sense 1).
| 1513 More Rich. III (1883) 47 He plucked vp hys doublet sleue to his elbow. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccclxxxiv, A dowblette maker of London. 1675 J. Pynchon in Mather K. Philip's War (1862) 245, I pray you send down by the post my doublet coat. |
Hence ˈdoubleted a., clad in a doublet; † ˈdoubleting n., ? stuff for doublets (cf. trousering).
| 1575 Act Gen. Assembly in Henderson Old World Scotland (1893) 163 All Kinde of gowning, cutting, doubletting, or breekes of Velvet. 1858 Hawthorne Ancestral Footsteps (1883) 495 Doubletted and beruffled knightly shades of Queen Elizabeth's time. |