† parmaˈcety Obs.
Forms: 6 parmacete, -citie, -sitie, 6–7 -cetie, 7 -cety, -city, 7–8 -sity, 7–9 -cetty, -citty; 7 permacetty, -ceti.
1. A popular corruption of spermaceti.
| 1545 Rates of Customs c iij, Parmacete the pounde iiis. iiiid. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. III. 1259/2 The oile being boiled out of the head was parmasitie. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. iii. 58 The Soveraign'st thing on earth Was Parmacity, for an inward bruise. 1624 Althorp MS. in Simpkinson Washingtons App. 56 Metridate, Dies cordin, and permacetty of every one of them a little. c 1720 W. Gibson Farrier's Dispens. ii. i. (1734) 34 Parmasity, or Sperma Ceti. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Parmacitty, Sperma-ceti..now considered vulgar or antiquated. |
b. poor man's parmacety: a name for the plant Shepherd's Purse (Capsella Bursa-pastoris).
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. xxiii. §2. 215 Shepheardes purse or Scrip: of some..poore mans Parmacetie. 1657 Coles Adam in Eden xxxv. 71 Shepherds pouch and poor mans Parmacety, it being in some sort effectual for the same things that Parmacety is. |
2. In full parmacety whale: The Cachalot, or Sperm whale.
| 1730 S. Dale S. Taylor's Hist. & Antiq. Harwich 413 The Parmacitty-Whale, or Pot-Wall-fish. 1851 H. Melville Whale xvi. 80 Chewed up, crunched by the monstrousest parmacetty that ever chipped a boat. |