FILLET (through Fr. filet, from the med. Lat. filettum, diminutive of filum, a thread), a band or ribbon used for tying the hair, the Lat. vitta, which was used as a sacrificial emblem, and also worn by vestal virgins, brides and poets. The word is thus applied to anything in the shape of a band or strip, as, in coining, to the metal ribbon from which the blanks are punched. In architecture, a “fillet” is a narrow flat band, sometimes called a “listel,” which is used to separate mouldings one from the other, or to terminate a suite of mouldings as at the top of a cornice. In the fluted column of the Ionic and Corinthian Orders the fillet is employed between the flutes. It is a very important feature in Gothic work, being frequently worked on large mouldings; when placed on the front and sides of the moulding of a rib it has been termed the “keel and wings” of the rib.
In cooking, “fillet” is used of the “undercut” of a sirloin of beef, or of a thick slice of fish or meat; more particularly of a boned and rolled piece of veal or other meat, tied by a “fillet” or string.