▪ I. palace, n.1
(ˈpæləs)
Forms: 3–6 paleys, -eis, -ais, 4–5 paleise, -eyse, -eice, -eyce, -as, -ys, 4–6 palays, -ayce, -es, -is, 5 palass(e, -aies, -yce, -ijs, payleysse, -ays, 5–6 palaise, -ice, -ois, -oys, 6 paliss, -ise, -ece, pal(l)aice, pallas(e, -ays, -es, -ys, 6–8 pallace, 5– palace. pl. palaces: in 4 paleis, -eys, 5 -ice, -is, -yce, -ys, -es; 6 palacies.
[ME. a. OF. palais, paleis, F. palais = Pr. palai, -ait, Sp., Pg. palacio, It. palazzo:—L. palātium, orig. proper name of one of the seven hills of Rome (also called Mons Palatinus, the palatine Mount), hence, the house of Augustus there situated, and later the assemblage of buildings which composed the palace of the Cæsars, and finally covered the whole hill; whence transf. to other imperial and royal residences.
From the Fr. also Du. paleis, Ger. palast, LG. palas, Da. palads, Sw. palats; but the word appears originally to have entered the Teut. langs. in the form palantium or palantia (cf. Gr. παλλάντιον), whence OE. palęnt m., palęnte, palęndse wk. fem., OFris. palense, OS. palencea, palinza, OHG. pfalanza, -inza, MHG. phalenze, pfalze, pfalz fem.: cf. Palsgrave.]
1. a. The official residence of an emperor, king, pope, or other sovereign ruler.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 39/194 A-midde þe paleys þis holi bodi huy bureden with grete pruyte. a 1300 K. Horn 1256 Horn him ȝede with his To þe kinges palais [v.r. paleyse]. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. ii. 18 In þe pope paleys heo is as priue as my-seluen. 1393 Ibid. C. xi. 16 Boþe princes paleis [B paleyses] and poure menne Cotes. c 1430 Syr Tryam. 488 The hounde, as the story says, Ranne to the kyngys palays. 1475 Nottingham Rec. II. 389 Yeuen vnder our Priue Seal, at our Palois of Westminster. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lix. 4 Hes magellit my making, throw his maliss, And present it into ȝowr paliss. 1529 Rastell Pastyme (1811) 13 He was in his pales slayn by treason. 1549 Compl. Scot. 42 Lyik as plutois paleis hed been birnand. 1555 Eden Decades 259 The dukes pallaice. 1589 Hay any Work (1844) 69 Going to the old pallas at Westminster. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 101 When David spied her from the Terrace of his Pallace. 1743 Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 110 That the worst Jail in England is a Palace to our present Situation. 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) II. vii. 233 The Ducal Palace stands comparatively alone. |
b. The official residence of an archbishop or bishop within his cathedral city,
e.g. Fulham Palace; in common parlance extended to any episcopal residence,
e.g. ‘Lambeth Palace’, ‘Cuddesdon Palace’: see
quots. 1886–96. (This use does not seem to obtain out of England.)
| c 1290 Beket 1865 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 160 Seint thomas ne hadde i-beo at is paleis nouȝt longe. c 1380 Wyclif in Todd Three Treat. 151 More þei shal be sett by..whenne þei comen to her paleices. c 1450 Merlin 105 The archebisshop drough hem alle to his paleis. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health, Extrav. 4 b, All that Cardynalles palacis, be so sumptuously maynteyned. 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden) 27 The fest holden in the byshoppe of Londones palles. 1642–3 in Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1721) V. 109 To the Bishop of Lincoln's House,..commonly called the Bishop's Palace. 1781 Cowper Truth 122 Not all the plenty of a Bishop's board, His palace, and his lacqueys, and ‘My Lord!’ 1845 J. F. Murray Tour of Thames 36 The manor-house, or palace, of Fulham has been, from a very early period the principal summer residence of the Bishops of London. 1886 Daily News 28 Dec. 7/1 The style of ‘palace’ belongs strictly to a bishop's residence within his cathedral city only. Lambeth Palace was known correctly as Lambeth House within the past 90 years; and letters of Bonner are extant dated severally from his palace at Fulham and house at Lambeth. 1896 Spectator 22 Aug 235 Even the most ordinary of villa residences is a palace when lived in by a Bishop;..the Bishop will make anything short of furnished lodgings a palace. |
c. In extended applications, chiefly due to translation or adaptation of foreign usage.
In some versions of the Bible, loosely used for
Gr. αὐλή, L.
atrium, hall, court; sometimes applied to a ducal mansion,
e.g. Blenheim Palace,
Dalkeith Palace; like
It. palazzo, applied to the large mansions of noble families in Italian cities, as the
Farnese Palace; in
palace of justice applied, like F.
palais de justice, to the supreme law-court; etc.
| 1526 Tindale John xviii. 15 [He] went in with Iesus into the pallys [1539, 1611 palace] of the hye preste [αὐλὴν, atrium, Wyclif the halle of the bischop, Geneva hall, Rhem., R.V. court]. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 47 Vpon the Riuer of Douern ar castelis, Touris, palices, and gentil menis places nocht few. 1808 Pike Sources Mississ. iii. (1810) 212 The public square is in the centre of the town; on the north side of which is situated the palace (as they term it) or government house. 1818 Burt's Lett. N. Scot. I. Notes 6 People commonly denominate the house of a duke, as they do an episcopal residence, a palace. 1823 Rogers Italy xviii. 4 Stop at a Palace near the Reggio-gate, Dwelt in of old by one of the Orsini. |
† d. U.S. In allusive use: see
quot. Obs.| 1809 J. Quincy in Life 174 The result was astonishing to Campbell and the leaders of the Palace troops [supporters of Jefferson's Administration]. Ibid. 185 Dawson, a man of the palace. |
e. By metonymy, the monarch or monarchy.
| 1962 A. Sampson Anat. Brit. i. iii. 49 For much of this, it is unfair to blame the palace. Many of the pretensions spring from deeper causes than the monarchy. 1973 Times 14 Apr. (Nepal Suppl.) p. i/5 The primacy of the palace in the decision-making process was the principal feature of the constitution that King Mahendra introduced in 1962. 1974 Listener 14 Mar. 327/3, I thought the election was going to be a very close thing..actually, the Conservatives have more votes than the Labour Party. But I think the choice made by the Palace was inevitable. 1974 Times 6 May 14/7 The Palace..believed it did not have to accede to Mr Wilson's request. |
2. In various figurative uses:
e.g. the palace of heaven,
a fairy palace, etc.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 412 He wroght þe angels all of heuen And sette þam in haly palais [v.r. pales]. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. xi. 302 Percen wiþ a pater noster þe paleis of heuene. c 1400 Rom. Rose 5002 Peyne & Distresse, Syknesse & Ire,..Ben of hir [Eldes] paleys senatours. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 233 May..ouerthrowe y⊇ spirituall hous or palays that he hath entended..to rere vp. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxv. §7 Which conceipt being entered into that palace of mans fancie. c 1614 Sir W. Mure Dido & æneas i. 501 Some waxen pallaces with paine do reir. 1778 F. Burney Evelina (1791) I. xii. 33 Made me almost think I was in some inchanted castle or fairy palace. 1898 Watts-Dunton Aylwin (1900) 65/1 The face of a wanderer from the cloud-palaces of the sylphs. |
3. A dwelling-place of palatial splendour; a stately mansion.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 213 Þere were meny paleys [1432–50 tr. Higden palice] real and noble i-bulde in Rome in worschippe of emperours and of oþere noble men also. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xv. 66 Þai schall hafe faire palaycez and grete and faire housez. c 1450 Holland Howlat 668 Past till a palace of pryce plesand allane. 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 30, I will imagine a small cotage to [be] a spacious pallaice. 1740 Dyche & Pardon s.v. Woodstock, The Churchills..for whom is built a most magnificent palace. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 73 A hundred thousand palaces adorn the island. |
4. transf. A building, usually spacious and of attractive appearance, intended as a place of amusement, entertainment, or refreshment:
cf. gin-, coffee-
palace, etc. Also,
palace of varieties, a variety theatre.
Crystal Palace, the name of the building of the Great Exhibition of 1851, when removed and erected on Sydenham Hill, near London, as a permanent place of entertainment; it was destroyed by fire in 1936.
| 1834 Oxf. Univ. Mag. I. 327 The gin palaces, (as they have been not inaptly called). 1851 (title) Palace of Glass and the Gatherings of the People. 1851 (title) Crystal Palace and its Great Exhibition, as it was. 1855 London as it is to-day 121 The new Crystal Palace..is..a permanent addition to the means of amusement and instruction possessed by England and the world. 1875 Chamb. Jrnl. No. 133. 66 The gin palaces are filled with men, women, children, noise, smoke, and gas. 1890 Pall Mall G. 4 Sept. 6/2 ‘The Dockers' Palace’ is the name of an institution..in connection with the parochial work of St. Matthew's, Stepney. 1894 Stead If Christ came to Chicago 358 The coffee parlours and cocoa palaces of many English towns. 1899 Beerbohm More 125 Oh, for the wasted glories of the old Oxford! Oh, for one hour in the Hoxton Palace of Varieties! 1902 O. Wister Virginian xiii. 148, I came upon him one morning in Colonel Cyrus Jones's eating palace. 1933 P. Godfrey Back-Stage xiv. 179 Sir Oswald Stoll, by transforming the music-hall into the palace of varieties, achieved the same sort of result that Sir Joseph Lyons reached by converting tea-shops into Corner Houses. 1966 Economist 10 Dec. 1144/2 The plush restaurants..have been supplanted by the palaces à go-go. 1973 A. MacVicar Painted Doll Affair ii. 32 A toilet palace dominates the head of Inveraray pier. 1976 J. M. Brownjohn tr. Kirst's Time for Payment 28 There was a big medium-priced restaurant, a porn palace, a hair stylist. |
† 5. The astrological ‘house’ of a planet: see
house n.1 8.
Obs.| c 1374 Chaucer Compl. Mars 53 Mars shal entre as fast as he may glyde In-to hir next paleys to abyde. |
6. attrib. and
Comb.:
a. attrib. ‘of or belonging to, or of the style of, a palace’, as
palace-castle,
palace-chamber,
palace-church,
palace-door,
palace-garden,
palace-guard,
palace-hall,
palace-life,
palace-politics,
palace-prison,
palace-yard, etc.
b. Instrumental, locative, objective, similative, etc., as
palace-bordered,
palace-covered,
palace-like,
palace-taught,
palace-walking adjs. c. Special
Combs.:
palace-car, a railway-carriage fitted up in luxurious style; so
palace tramcar;
palace coup = palace revolution;
palace-crown, a counter used by officers of the Palais Royal in France;
palace guard, (
a) one who guards a palace; (
b) one who helps to protect a monarch, president, etc.;
palace-hotel, a hotel of palatial splendour;
palace revolution [
cf. G.
palastrevolution], the overthrowal of a sovereign, etc., without civil war,
usu. by other members of the ruling group; also
fig.;
palace style Archæol., a type of pottery associated with the Minoan palaces, or an imitation of this type.
| 1893 ‘Mark Twain’ in Century Mag. Dec. 234/1 Along the *palace-bordered canals of Venice. 1900 J. K. Jerome Three Men on Bummel viii. 174 Through Prague's dirty, palace-bordered alleys must have pressed often in hot haste blind Ziska and open-minded Wallenstein. |
| 1868 Dispatch & Vanguard (San Francisco) 28 Mar. 1/1, I enjoyed the equivocal luxury of traveling in a ‘*palace’ or ‘sleeping car’. 1884 Pall Mall G. 9 Dec. 11/1 When you sleep in a palace car you are liable to be jerked up on end by the sudden slowing up of the train. 1967 C. O. Skinner Madame Sarah viii. 163 They travelled via..three Pullmans..and her own private car, known as a ‘Palace Car’. |
| 1899 J. H. Metcalfe Earldom of Wiltes 11 A *palace-castle similar to Sheriff-Hutton. |
| c 1374 Chaucer Former Age 41 Yit were no *paleis chaumbres, ne non halles. 1738 Wesley Ps. & Hymns civ. iii, God..forms His Palace-Chamber in the Skies. |
| 1846 L. S. Costello Tour Venice 290 That gorgeous *palace-church, which it took ages to erect. |
| 1970 Guardian 13 Jan. 1/2 Some kind of *palace coup occurred in Biafra on Friday... The Biafran doves ‘invited’ their leader to step down. 1970 Daily Tel. 16 Feb. 16 This adds another possibility to those of a bid by Reed or a rival—a palace coup which would allow new management to be called in to put through an internal re-organisation. |
| 1865 J. H. Ingraham Pillar of Fire (1872) 153 This *palace-covered island. |
| 1653 Urquhart Rabelais ii. xxi. 148 A great purse full of *Palace-crowns [Fr. d'escutz du Palais] called counters. |
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 508 (459) In with þe *paleys gardyn by a welle. |
| 1887 G. Meredith Ballads & P. 46 The *palace-guard Had passed the measured rounds. 1948 J. A. Farley Jim Farley's Story xxii. 232 Nathan Straus brought me word that the White House ‘palace guard’ realized the anti-Catholic campaign against me had failed. 1973 Times 11 May 1/1 This seemed his [sc. President Nixon's] most direct admission to date that he had allowed himself to be kept too isolated for too long by his departed ‘palace guard’. |
| 1833 Tennyson Poems 70 And richly feast within thy *palacehall. |
| 1847 M. Howitt Ballads 316 There were *palace-homes around her. |
| 1870 J. D. Sherwood Comic Hist. U.S. 422 By the side of *palace hotels, now gleaming along golden bays. 1884 Century Mag. Mar. 643/1 It [sc. Washington, D.C.] has no elevated rail⁓roads, no palace hotels, no mammoth elevators. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 30 Aug. 8/1 The huge palace-hotels appear to have suffered most. 1934 G. B. Shaw Too True to be Good 11 Come to our palace hotels. 1969 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 4 Jan. 64/2 Whether the world of the Superjet will allow the survival of the palace hotels is a question facing grand tours and grand tourists. |
| 1865 Gladstone Farew. Addr. Edin. Univ. 24 That system exhibits a kind of royal or *palace-life of man. |
| 1801 H. Skrine Rivers Gt. Brit. 46 Buxton where Hygæa has created her *palace-like temple. |
| 1608 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iv. Decay 197 These *Palace-mice, this busie-idle sort Of fawning Minions, full of sooths and smiles. |
| 1896 Dublin Rev. July 15 Eliakim is to succeed him as the king's *palace-prefect. |
| 1904 N.E.D. s.v. Palace sb.1 6 a, *Palace revolution. 1907 J. London Iron Heel xiv. 188 They will be like the guards of the palace in old Rome, and there will be palace revolutions whereby the labour castes will seize the reins of power. 1932 M. Eastman tr. Trotsky's Hist. Russ. Revolution I. 83 (heading) The Idea of a Palace Revolution. 1935 H. A. L. Fisher Hist. Europe I. xii. 143 The [Byzantine] state was shaken by palace revolutions and civil war. 1949 Mind LVIII. 500 The ensuing changes must be classed with the ‘palace revolutions’ of other histories, since they scarcely affected the structure of the state. 1958 Times 1 Mar. 7/6 The palace revolution in ski racing technique. 1972 H. Kemelman Monday the Rabbi took Off xix. 123 The Persian King feared a palace revolution by Haman and plotted with Esther to bring about his ruin. |
| 1902 A. J. Evans in Ann. Brit. Sch. Athens 1900–1901 51 (heading) Mycenaean painted pottery of the ‘*Palace Style’. Ibid., The view that this in fact represents the indigenous ‘Palace Style’ of Knossos in its highest development is confirmed by the evident parallelism which its motives present to the decorative wall paintings of the building. 1913 R. A. S. Macalister Philistines i. 18 In Palestine and elsewhere occasional scraps of the ‘palace’ styles come to light. 1939 J. D. S. Pendlebury Archæol. Crete iv. 180 L.M. II, in fact, was, like M.M. II, a true Palace style, though even more restricted in being confined to Knossos alone. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XIX. 275/2 Between 1450 and 1375 bc, Mycenaean taste reduced the spontaneity of the early Marine style to a rigid formality, thereby creating the monumental Palace style. |
| 1834 Tait's Mag. I. 232/2 The *palace-taught, and college-fed, Brings scandal on the meek unhonoured head. |
| 1819 Shelley Cenci ii. ii. 68 That *palace-walking devil Gold. |
| 1725 Pope Odyss. xviii. 123 He reels, he fails, Till propped, reclining on the *palace-walls. |
▪ II. † palace, n.2 Obs. Also 5–6
palas,
-ys,
-ays.
[a. F. palais (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. palātium, confounded with palātum (Darmesteter).] The palate or roof of the mouth: see
palate.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 266/2 A Palace (v.r. Palas) of a mouthe, frumen, palacium. 1506 Kalender of Sheph. K viij, The palys or rofe bone. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. F ij, What is the palays?.. It is the hyghest place or rofe of the mouth. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health xxvi. 16 Ulceration in the palace or the roughe of the mouth. |
▪ III. ˈpalace, n.3 s.w. dial. Also
pallace.
[Of uncertain history; usually identified in spelling with palace n.1, but perh. orig. a special use of palis n., in sense ‘enclosed place’, ‘yard’.] (See
quots.)
| 1506 Will of R. Holland (Som. Ho.), My place or howse that I dwell in and a litell howse or paleys adiownyng [Exeter]. 1703 Lease Corporation Totnes in N. & Q. 1st Ser. (1850) I. 202/1, All that cellar and the chambers over the same, and the little pallace and landing-place adjoining to the river Dart. 1719 Ibid. (ibid. 233/2) All that great cellar lately rebuilt, and the plott of ground or pallace thereto belonging lately converted into a cellar. 1777 Horæ Subsecivæ 317 (E.D.D.) At Dartmouth in Devon there are some of these storehouses cut out of the rock still retaining their old name of palaces. 1871 Quiller-Couch Hist. Polperro 32. 1880 E. Cornwall Gloss., Palace, a cellar for the bulking and storing of pilchards. This cellar is usually a square building with a pent-house roof, enclosing an open area or court. 1883 W. Blake in Walsh Irish Fisheries 27 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.), Even now in certain parts of the county of Cork there were remains of what were called fish palaces, where the Dutch used to cure the fish. 1890 Quiller-Couch Three Ships iv. (1892) 66 The towns-folk live on their first storeys, using the lower floors as fish cellars, or ‘pallaces’. |
▪ IV. ˈpalace, v. rare.
[f. palace n.1] trans. To place or lodge in a palace.
| 1873 Browning Red Cott. Nt.-cap 1588 Behold her palaced straight In splendor, clothed in diamonds. 1875 ― Aristoph. Apol. 5543 Elektra, palaced once, a visitant To thy poor rustic dwelling, now I come. |
▪ V. palace erron. var. palis Obs.