Frontlets

[fruhnt-lit] /ˈfrʌnt lɪt/

noun
1.
Also, frontal. a decorative band, ribbon, or the like, worn across the forehead:
The princess wore a richly bejeweled frontlet.
2.
the forehead of an animal.
3.
Ornithology. the forehead when marked by a different color or texture of the plumage.
4.
Judaism. the phylactery worn on the forehead.
/ˈfrʌntlɪt/
noun
1.
Also called frontal. a small decorative loop worn on a woman’s forehead, projecting from under her headdress, in the 15th century
2.
the forehead of an animal, esp of a bird when it is a different colour from the rest of the head
3.
the decorated border of an altar frontal
4.
(Judaism) a phylactery worn on the forehead See also tefillah
n.

from Old French frontelet, diminutive of frontel (Modern French fronteau) “forehead, front of a helmet, hairband,” from Late Latin frontale “an ornament for the forehead,” from frons (see front (n.)).

occurs only in Ex. 13:16; Deut. 6:8, and 11:18. The meaning of the injunction to the Israelites, with regard to the statues and precepts given them, that they should “bind them for a sign upon their hand, and have them as frontlets between their eyes,” was that they should keep them distinctly in view and carefully attend to them. But soon after their return from Babylon they began to interpret this injunction literally, and had accordingly portions of the law written out and worn about their person. These they called tephillin, i.e., “prayers.” The passages so written out on strips of parchment were these, Ex. 12:2-10; 13:11-21; Deut. 6:4-9; 11:18-21. They were then “rolled up in a case of black calfskin, which was attached to a stiffer piece of leather, having a thong one finger broad and one cubit and a half long. Those worn on the forehead were written on four strips of parchment, and put into four little cells within a square case, which had on it the Hebrew letter called shin, the three points of which were regarded as an emblem of God.” This case tied around the forehead in a particular way was called “the tephillah on the head.” (See PHYLACTERY.)