mantua
(ˈmæntjuːə)
Also 7 mantoa.
[Corruption of manteau, due to association with the place-name Mantua.
Perh. mantua silk, and the fabric referred to in 2 below, may have been called from the place-name, which seems to occur attrib. in the following: a 1618 Bk. Rates H 3 b, Hose of Cruell vocat. Mantua hose, the paire, iiijs.]
1. A loose gown, worn by women in 17–18th c. = manteau 1.
| 1678 Lond. Gaz. No. 1287/4 One rich flowred Mantua lined with black, with a pair of very fine laced Sleeves. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 95/2 A Mantua, is a kind of loose Coat without any stayes in it. 1693 Southerne Maid's Last Prayer iii. i, He has not seen me in my new Mantoa yet. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 80 ¶3 Brunetta..came to a public Ball in a plain black Silk Mantua. 1722 De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 278 A mantua of a better kind of calico. 1858 Thackeray Virgin. xxxii, The girls went off straightway to get together their best calamancoes,..mantuas, clocked stockings, and high-heeled shoes. |
† 2. A material; ? = mantua silk.
| 1709 Lond. Gaz. No. 4540/6 The best broad Italian colour'd Mantua's at 6s. 9d. per Yard. 1766 W. Gordon Gen. Counting-ho. 426, 20 yards mantua. 1787 Anderson Orig. Commerce II. 569 The silks called alamodes and lustrings were entirely owing to them [Fr. refugees of c 1685]; also brocades, sattins, black and coloured mantuas. |
3. attrib., as mantua-cloth, mantua gown, mantua petticoat, mantua silk.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Mantoe, or Mantua-Gown, a loose upper Garment, now generally worn by Women, instead of a straight-body'd Gown. 1731 in Planché Cycl. Costume (1876) I. 363 A rose-coloured paduasoy mantua, lined with a rich Mantua silk of the same colour. 1755 Strype Stow's Surv. (ed. 6) II. v. xxx. 561/1 It must be a very poor Woman that has not a Suit of Mantua Silk..to appear abroad in on Holydays. 176. in J. P. Malcom Manners Lond. (1810) II. 347 A scarlet-flowered damask Mantua Petticoat. 1882 Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework, Mantua Cloths, a term employed in trade to denote every description of cloth suitable for mantles, cloaks [etc.]. |