† ˈpiccadill, ˈpickadill Obs.
Forms: α. 7 pickadel(l, picadell; picca-, pica-, pickadil, -dill(e; pickedaille; pecca-, pecadill, -dile; pacadile; pickar-, picardil(l). β. 7 picca-, picka-, peccadillo. γ. 7 picka-, picca-, pecca-, pickydilly.
[a. F. pica-, piccadilles (a 1589 in Godef.) ‘the seuerall diuisions or peeces fastened together about the brimme of the collar of a doublet’ (Cotgr. 1611), app. answering to a Sp. *picadillo, dim. of picado pricked, pierced, punctured, slashed, minced (cf. picada a puncture, picadillo minced meat, hash, picadura ornamental gusset); cf. Du. (with dim. -ken) pickedillekens ‘laciniæ’ (Kilian).
Generally understood to be the origin of the name (originally a popular nickname) ‘Pickadilly Hall’, given before 1622 to a house in the parish of St. Martin's in the Fields, London, and now perpetuated in the street called Piccadilly. As to the connexion of ‘Pickadilly Hall’ with this word, various conjectures were current already in the time of Blount, 1656, who mentions two: either ‘because it was then the outmost or skirt house of the Suburbs that way’, or ‘from this, that one Higgins a Tailor, who built it, got most of his Estate by Pickadilles, which in the last age [= generation] were much worn in England’. See full account in Athenæum, 27 July 1901, pp. 125–7.]
1. a. A border of cut work or vandyking inserted on the edge of an article of dress, esp. on a collar or ruff. b. The name was app. transferred to the expansive collar fashionable in the early part of the 17th c., which usually had a broad laced or perforated border.
| α 1607 Dekker Northw. Hoe iii. i. Wks. 1873 III. 37 A short Dutch waist with a round Catherine-wheel fardingale, a close sleeue with a cartoose collour and a pickadell. c 1614 Drayton Moon Calf in Agincourt, etc. (1627) 165 In euery thing she must be monstrous: Her Picadell aboue her crowne vp-beares; Her Fardingale is set aboue her eares. 1614 in Lismore Papers Ser. ii. (1887) I. 253 A pickadell of white Sattin xxxs. 1616 Burgh Rec. Stirling (1887) 144 Buittis, schone, pantenes, and pickedaillis. 16.. B. Jonson Underwoods xxxii. Wks. (Rtldg.) 698/2 Ready to cast at one whose band sits ill, And then leap mad on a neat picardill. 1656 Blount Glossogr. [from Cotgr.], Pickadil, the round hem, or the several divisions set together about the skirt of a Garment, or other thing; also a kinde of stiff collar, made in fashion of a Band. 1658 Phillips, Pickadil, (from the Dutch word Pickedillekens) the hem about the skirt of a garment, also the extremity or utmost part of any thing. |
| β 1648–60 Hexham, Pickedillekens, Pickadilloes, or small Edges. |
| attrib. 1821 Scott Kenilw. xi, Wayland Smith's flesh would mind Pinniewinks's awl no more than a cambric ruff minds a hot piccadilloe needle. |
| γ 1611 Rich Honest. Age (1615) 20 He that some forty or fifty yeares sithens, should haue asked after a Pickadilly, I wonder who could haue vnderstood him. 1653 A. Wilson Jas. I 59 Great Cutwork Bands and Piccadillies (a thing that hath since lost the name) crouded in and flourished among us. 1655 tr. Com. Hist. Francion vi. 15 Taking two Eggs..which he did th[r]ow at his face, and spoiled his worshipfull Pickadilly, which was set forth like a Peacocks tail. 1695 Thoresby Diary (ed. Hunter) I. 289 To..view his..curiosities; he presented me with his grandfather's pickadilly. |
2. A stiff band or collar of linen-covered pasteboard or wire, worn in the 17th c. to support the wide collar or ruff. [
Cf. obs. F.
piccadille ‘porterabat’ (
Godef.).]
| 1611 Cotgr., Carte,..also, a Pickadill, or supporter, of Pasteboord couered with linnen. 1611 in Heath Grocers' Comp. (1869) 91 [No apprentice to wear] any piccadilly or other support in, with, about the collar of his doublett. 1619 Purchas Microcosmus xxvii. 265 Larger Fall's borne vp with a Pickadillo; or scarsly Peeping out ouer the Doublet Coller. 1670 R. Lassels Voy. Italy II. 191 The other half [of his band] was made of coarse lawne startched blew and standing out upon a pickydilly of wyer. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 95/2 A Pacadile, a thing put about Man or Womans Neck to support and bear up the Band, or Gorget. Ibid. 237/2 Their Gorget standing up being supported by Wyers and a kind of Roll which they called a Pecadile. |
3. transf. Applied humorously to a halter, etc.
| 1615 E. Hoby Curry-Combe v. 237 Wee must beleeue..that Thomas Becket furnished our Kentishmen with the like Pickadillies, for cutting off his horse tail. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. 34/1 One that at the Gallowes made her will Late choaked with the Hangman's Pickadill. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. i. 1454 Which when they're prov'd in open Court, Wear wooden Peccadillo's for't. |