‖ terra sigillata
(ˈtɛrə sɪdʒɪˈleɪtə)
Also 5–6 terre sigillate, 6 terra sygyllata.
[med.L., = ‘sealed earth’: so F. terre seellée (Cotgr.), terre sigillée (Littré), It. terra sigillata (Florio), G. siegelerde. For the reason of the name, see quot. 1802.]
1. An astringent bole, of fatty consistence and reddish colour, obtained from Lemnos; formerly esteemed as a medicine and antidote; sphragide; known also as † sealed earth (sealed ppl. a. 1 d), sigillate earth, Lemnian earth, Terra Lemnia. Also applied to similar earths found elsewhere.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. xcvii. (Bodl. MS.), A Certeyn veyne of erþe is icleped Terra sigillata, and is singulerliche colde and druy. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 61 Take þe pouder of crabbis brent vj. parties, gencian .iij parties, terre sigillate oon partie, make poudre. c 1550 Lloyd Treas. Health H ij, Take one parte of Terrasygyllata, and an other of the gumme called Sarasenicum. 1632 Lithgow Trav. iii. 97 The soueraigne minerall against infections, called Terra Lemnia, or Sigillata. 1756 Nugent Gr. Tour II. 59 Germany is famous for that sort of earth, seldom found any where else, called Terra sigillata. 1802 Brookes' Gazetteer (ed. 12) s.v. Lemnos, This earth [of Lemnos]..is called Terra Sigillata, being formed into small loaves sealed with the grand signior's seal, and thus dispersed over various parts of Europe. |
† 2. Red pigment; ruddle. Obs.
| 1563 Warde tr. Alexis' Secr. ii. 27 b, Terrasigillata or ruddle. 1608 Capt. Smith True Relat. 35 Two Indians, each with a cudgell, and all newly painted with Terra⁓sigillata, came circling about me as though they would have clubed me like a hare. |
3. Archæol. [Cf. W. Dorow Opferstätte und Grabhügel der Germanen und Römer am Rhein (1821) ii. 32, etc.] A type of fine Roman pottery made from the first century b.c. to the third century a.d. in Gaul (also Italy and Germany), usu. red in colour and sometimes decorated with stamped figures or patterns. Not the preferred term in English: see Arretine a., Samian a. and n.
H. Brunsting, in Overdruk uit Westerheem (1972) XXI. 252–68, provides a detailed glossary of references to the ware in English and Continental sources. Quot. 1845 below is often mistaken for the first English use of the term: it relates in fact to the medicinal tablet or pastille (sense 1).
| [1845 E. B. Price in Gentl. Mag. Feb. 142/1 It is termed ‘Terra Samia sigillata’, of circular form, about 7/8 of an inch diameter... It is of a pale dull red colour, and has apparently been made into a paste and dried in a mould.] 1903 Amer. Jrnl. Archaeol. VII. 485 J. Déchelette publishes the results of a study of the terra sigillata..in the territory of the Ruteni near Millau. 1920 Oswald & Pryce Introd. Stud. Terra Sigillata i. 1 Next to datable inscriptions, there is, perhaps, no relic of Roman occupation which yields such valuable chronological evidence as Terra Sigillata. 1936 Oxoniensia I. 50 In and immediately below this layer much pottery was found including Terra Sigillata of the second century. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. XI. 761/2 Italian terra sigillata, or Arretine ware, was chiefly manufactured at Arretium. 1978 M. Gilbert Empty House xi. 94 The stuff we call Samian, or Terra Sigillata, which was manufactured in Central Gaul. |