A lock or curl of hair hanging near the ear; a ringlet of hair framing the ear.
From 'ear' + 'lock' (a lock or curl of hair). Used since the 17th century to describe fashionable ringlets worn near the ears, especially in formal portraiture.
Earlocks were a signature of 17th-century fashion—you can see them in countless portraits of royalty and nobility, curled perfectly to frame the face and show off fine fabric and jewelry.
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