Naples
(ˈneɪp(ə)lz)
The name of a city in Southern Italy, used to designate various things in some way connected or associated with it.
1. † a. As an epithet of certain diseases: (see Neapolitan a.). Obs.
| 1507 Extr. Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 437 Item, that diligent inquisitioun be takin of ale infect personis with this strange seiknes of Nappillis. 1596 P. Barrough Meth. Physick (ed. 3) 361 The frenchmen at that siege got the buttons of Naples (as we terme them) which doth much annoy them at this day. 1656 Roxb. Ball. (1899) IX. c*, A Brewer may gett a Naples face. |
b. fustian of Naples: see fustian A. 1 c.
c. Naples biscuit or Naples cake. ? Obs.
| 1699 Evelyn Acetaria (1729) 53 Make them into Cakes or Loaves cut long-wise, in shape of Naples-Biscuit. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) I. 131, I broke some Naples biscuit into a cup. Ibid. II. 6 He ordered up a bottle of sack and some Naples cakes. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. House-kpr. (1778) 261 A nutmeg and two Naples biscuits. |
d. Star of Naples, the Star of Bethlehem. Naples radish (see quot.). Naples spider, the Tarantula.
| 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 320 Naples, Star of, Ornithogalum. 1763 Mills Pract. Husb. IV. 38 The Naples radish, which has a very white, round, small, and sweet root. 1840 Hood Kilmansegg, Birth xvii, Even some old ones appear'd to have had A bite from the Naples Spider. |
2. Naples yellow, a yellow pigment in the form of a fine powder, prepared from antimony, and originally manufactured at Naples; also, the colour produced by this.
| 1738 tr. Lairesse & Fritsch's Art Painting 159 With purple or Violet agrees Naples-yellow. 1774 in Willis & Clark Cambr. (1886) II. 42 To wash the plain parts of the Cieling and Walls in the Chapel a Naples yellow. 1801 Encycl. Brit. Suppl. II. 292/2 About the nature of the substance called Naples yellow there has been much diversity of opinion. 1839 T. H. Fielding Painting in Oil & Water Col. 114 Naples Yellow is in great use at the present day. |