bireme (birem)

[L. biremis, two banks or tiers of oars. A few were biremes , the rest stout triremes. L. Wallace , Ben-Hur, p. 149. biretta (bi-ret'ä), n. [Also birretta , berretta; berretta = Sp. birreta = Pr. berret a , bar ret a = F. barette (> E. barret2), fem.; in masc. form, Pr. birret = Cat. baret = F. béret (see beret ), rettum , birretum , also beret a , etc., dim. of birr us , a hood or cape, LL. a cloak: see birr us .] 1. Originally, any small cap worn as distinctive of a trade or profe ion; afterward, a scholastic cap, or such as was worn indoors by members of the learned Biretta. profe ions; now, in the Rom. Cath. Ch., the ecclesiastical cap. This last is square, and has three and sometimes four horns or projections on top, cro ing it at equal angles, and frequently having a tuft or ta el where the horns meet in the middle. For priests and the lower orders its color is black, and for bishops also, at least in Rome, though elsewhere they commonly wear one of violet, corresponding with the color of the ca ock; for cardinals it is red. It seems to have been introduced in offices of the church when the amice ceased to be worn over the head in proceeding to and from the altar at ma . 2. By extension, a Tunis cap; a smoking-cap.