or CASK, a piece of defensive armour for the head and neck; otherwise called head-piece and helmet. The word is French, casque, from cassinum or cassicus, a diminutive of cassis, a helmet. Le Gendre observes, that anciently in France the gens d'armes all wore casques. The king wore a casque gilt, the dukes and counts silvered, gentlemen of extraction polished steel, and others plain iron. There were great varieties in its form and fashion. F. Joubert makes it the most ancient of all the coverings of the head, as well as the most universal.