▪ I. brocade, n.
(brəʊˈkeɪd)
Forms: 6–8 brocardo, 7–8 brocado, brocard, 8 brochad, 7– brocade.
[The form brocado was a. Sp., Pg. brocado, corresp. to It. broccato ‘cloth of gold and siluer’ (Percivall, Florio), lit. ‘bossed’ or ‘embossed stuff’, in form masc. pa. pple. of broccare ‘to boss, to stud, to set with great-headed nails’, f. It. brocca (Sp. broca) a boss or stud, the same word as F. broche, Eng. broach, q.v. For the change to -ade see that ending; the form brochad seems influenced by F. brocher (cf. broche v.). (It is not clear whether the forms brocardo, brocard, and F. brocart, are corruptions of brocado, or distinct formations with the suffix -ardo, -art, -ard.)]
1. A textile fabric woven with a pattern of raised figures, originally in gold or silver; in later use, any kind of stuff richly wrought or ‘flowered’ with a raised pattern; also a cloth of gold and silver of Indian manufacture.
| 1563–99 Hakluyt Voy. II. 215 (Ormus) Cloth of silke, brocardo, and divers other sortes of marchandise come out of Persia. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Brocado, cloth of gold or silver. 1691 Locke Money Wks. 1727 II, Whose Wife must spread a long Train of Brocard. 1695 Motteux St. Olon's Morocco 149 Very rich Gold and Silver Brocades. 1702 W. J. Bruyn's Voy. Levant vii. 24 A sort of Bonnet of Brocardo or Cloth of Gold. 1709 Lond. Gaz. No. 4540/6 Bed Damasks, rich flower'd Sattins, Brochads, etc. c 1720 Prior Phyllis' Age, Stiff in Brocard, and pinch'd in stays. 1734 Pope Ess. Man iv. 186 One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v., At present, any stuff of silk, satin, or even simple taffety, when wrought, and enriched with flowers, etc., obtains the denomination of brocade. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. 310 Gold and silver brocade were also favourite, and perhaps original, manufactures of India. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede 53, I mean to bring out my best brocade, that I wore at your christening twenty years ago. |
| fig. 1861 Craik Hist. Eng. Lit. II. 267 (L.) The gorgeous brocade does not hide the true fire and fancy beneath. |
2. (See quot.)
| 1869 Eng. Mech. 12 Nov. 215/2 Gold is not put on any paper-hangings, it is a preparation called leaf metal, or a powder called brocade or bronze. |
3. attrib. Of or resembling brocade; brocade-matting, a floor matting of Japanese manufacture consisting of a texture of reeds and cotton yarn with a coloured design woven upon it; brocade-shell, a variegated species of cone-shell, Conus geographicus.
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 15 ¶4 A Brocade Waistcoat or Petticoat are standing Topicks. 1745 Baker Don Quix. I. i. v. 31 This curious Cap and his fine brocard Cope will make him outshine the Sun-Dial. 1812 Southey Omniana II. 283 Somewhat in the brocade fashion of Gongora. 1847 Barham Ingol. Leg. (1877) 281 Her rich brocade gown sat upright in its place. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXIX. 696/2 The ‘brocade-matting’ industry of Okayama. |
▪ II. broˈcade, v.
[f. prec.]
To work with a raised pattern (chiefly in pa. pple.).
| Mod. Newspaper, The bodice and train were brocaded with sprays of lilac on a ground of apple-blossom pink. |