Locket

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈlɒkɪt/

Definitions

1. A small ornamental case usually worn as jewelry that encases keepsakes such as photos or hair strands
2. A piece of jewelry, often in the form of a pendant, intended to hold beloved items like photographs or locks of hair
3. A small decorative object worn around the neck that opens to store small personal mementos

Etymology: The word "locket" passed through French and back into a sense of fastening. Its root is the English word "lock," the device that secures a door or chest. The French "loquet" was a small latch or catch, a diminutive formed from the Anglo-Norman "loc," which in turn came from Old English "loc," meaning a fastening. So the original idea was of something small that closes, not of an object worn at the throat. The jewelry sense grew from that notion of a small closed container. A locket is a little case that shuts with a clasp, and it is that enclosing quality, the way it keeps a picture or a lock of hair hidden inside, that tied the French diminutive to the modern ornament. The word therefore names the object by its fastening, much as a "keepsake" is named for what it keeps.

Synonyms: pendant, amulet