▪ I. olla1
(ˈɒlə)
Also 7 ollia.
[a. Sp. olla (pronounced ˈoʎa, whence spelling ollia. and olio), in Pg. olha pot, stew, hotchpot:—L. olla pot, jar.]
1. In Spain and Spanish-speaking lands, an earthen jar or pot used for cooking, etc.; also, a dish of meat and vegetables cooked in such a pot; hence = olio 1, olla podrida.
| 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. ii. i. 110 We did alwaies finde a tricke to adde some-thing, though it were but for the boyling of their Olla. Margin, Olla, is a pot or Pipkin, wherein flesh, and other things are sod; by the Figure Metonym the Olla is taken for that which is boyled in it. c 1645 Howell Lett. v. xxxviii. (1650) 174 He can marinat fish, make gellies..; he is passing good for an ollia. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 11 Oct., He taught me..to cook several outlandish delicacies, such as ollas, pepper-pots, pillaws [etc.]. 1832 Veg. Subst. Food of Man 224 The olla..with which a Spanish dinner commences. 1843 Longfellow Span. Stud. i. v, Give a Spaniard His mass, his olla, and his Doña Luisa. 1877 D. Greenwell Basket of Summer Fruit 69 Everything that is good in itself is good for an olla. |
2. In parts of the United States formerly Spanish: A large porous earthen jar for keeping drinking-water cool by evaporation from its outer surface.
| 1851 Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt li. 390 The olla was filled with water from the adjacent stream. 1854 Bartlett Mex. Boundary I. xi. 272 The olla or earthen pot almost their only domestic utensil. 1884 J. G. Bourke Snake Dance Moquis x. 109, I found three large four or five gallon ollas. |
‖ 3. An ancient cinerary urn. [Latin.]
| 1857 Birch Anc. Pottery (1858) II. 327 Of this pale red ware were also made the jars or ollae which held the ashes of the dead. |
▪ II. ‖ olla2
Also 7 olea, 8 olio, 8–9 ole, 9 ollah, ola.
[a. Pg. olla, var. of ola, a. Malayālim ōla (Tamil ōlai).]
A palm-leaf, esp. a leaf or strip of a leaf of the palmyra, used in Southern India, etc., for writing on; hence, a native letter or document written on such a leaf: = cadjan 2.
| 1625 Purchas Pilgrims II. x. 1728 He sent another mandate, that he should doe nothing till he had an Olla or Letter written with his hand in letters of gold. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India 66 The Houses are low, and Thatched with Oleas of the Cocoe-Trees. Ibid. Index, Oleas, leafs. 1718 Propag. Gospel in East iii. 37 (Y.) Damulian Leaves, commonly called Oles. 1760 Alves in Dalrymple Oriental Repert. (1808) I. 377 (Y.) Orders for Olios to be made out for delivering of what Englishmen were in his Kingdom to me. 1806 C. Buchanan Chr. Researches (ed. 2) 70 Many persons had their Ollahs in their hands, writing the sermon in Tamil shorthand. 1859 Tennent Ceylon (1860) I. x. 512 The books of the Singhalese are formed to-day, as they have been for ages past, of olas or strips taken from the young leaves of the Talipat or the Palmyra palm. |