kneelet
nounEtymology From knee + -let.
1
A band or piece of jewellery worn around the knee.
- [They] would have dreaded nothing more than that her ridiculous distress should become publicly known, if they had worn genouillères, that is to say, knee-pieces. A necessary part of a suit of armour was distinguished by this name in the days of chivalry; and the article of dress which corresponds to it may be called kneelets, if for a new article we strike a new word in that mint of analogy, from which whatever is lawfully coined comes forth as the King’s English.1847, Robert Southey, chapter 158, in The Doctor, &c., volume 6, London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, page 215:
- Clytæmnestra and her accomplice, Ægisthus, overawing the simple peasants of Mycenæ in regal pomp […] he in the shining cuirass and diadem, the slim golden armlets, anklets, kneelets, with the sharp bronze sword in its glittering sheath, and the dagger worth a petty chieftain’s ransom by his side […]1903, E. E. G., The Makers of Hellas: A Critical Inquiry into the Philosophy and Religion of Ancient Greece, London: Charles Griffin, § III, page 171:
2 more examples
- One of the wrestlers is a bald man with a very large stomach: he wears a pair of canvas trousers rolled up at the bottoms, as though he were going paddling. His opponent wears black tights, and leather kneelets which look as if they had come off an old cab-horse.1935, Christopher Isherwood, “A Berlin Diary: Winter 1932-3”, in The Berlin Stories, New York: New Directions, published 1963, page 190:
- 1991, Petru Popescu, Amazon Beaming, New York: Viking, “The Vanishing Tribe,” Chapter 4, p. 35, His calves bulged from ligatures of palm fiber tied under his knees, the same type of kneelets Columbus had reported after his first voyage to the New World.