grotto
(ˈgrɒtəʊ)
Pl. grottos, grottoes. Forms: α. 7 grotta, (grotha); pl. grotta's, grottas, grotha's, (erron. grottae); β. (7 groto), 7– grotto; pl. 7–8 grotto's, 7– grottos, grottoes.
[ad. It. grotta (for which Dante has also grotto) = OF. crote, croute, Pr. crota, Sp. and Pg. gruta:—pop.L. crupta, grupta (= literary L. crypta), ad. Gr. κρύπτη vault; f. κρύπτειν to hide. (The mod.F. grotte is from It.)]
1. A cave or cavern, esp. one which is picturesque, or which forms an agreeable retreat.
| 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely ii. vi. 241 To bee respected and credited, afore your grottae, or your Cryptae. 1632 Lithgow Trav. vi. 276 We arrived at a Cave,..and from the mouth of this delectable Grotto, gusheth forth a most delicious Fountaine. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth i. (1723) 3 To inform my self of the present Condition of the Earth..as far as either Grotto's or other Natural Caverns..let me into it. 1774 Goldsm. Nat Hist. (1776) I. 67 Of all the subterraneous caverns now known, the grotto of Antiparos is the most remarkable, as well for its extent, as for the beauty of its sparry incrustations. 1818 Keats Endym. i. 459 Echoing grottoes, full of tumbling waves And moonlight. 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. ii. (1858) 153 Partly perhaps the cause, partly the effect of this consecration of grottoes, began the caves of hermits. 1887 Ruskin Præterita II. 89 The Dog's grotto with its floor a foot deep in poisoned air. |
2. An excavation or structure made to imitate a rocky cave, often adorned with shell-work, etc., and serving as a place of recreation or a cool retreat.
| 1625 Bacon Ess., Building (Arb.) 552 On the Vnder Story, towards the Garden, Let it be turned to a Grotta, or place of Shade, or Estiuation. 1644 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 56 A grotto or shell-house, on the summit of the hill. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) I. iii. 92 The keeper of the house was very officious to shew him every room, with the garden, grotha's, and aqueducts. 1680 Morden Geog. Rect., Germany (1685) 119 There is nowhere to be seen fairer Rows of Orange-Trees, Grottas better contrived and beautified. 1791 Gentl. Mag 26/1 These seeds are sold at many shops in London, for ornamenting grottoes and shell-work. 1832 G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 283 Under the palace is a very curious and beautiful grotto of shell-work, with a mosaic floor. It consists of several chambers..adorned with statues. |
| transf. 1720 Strype Stow's Surv. (1754) II. vi. vi. 663/1 A small Grotto of trees most pleasant in the Summer season. |
3. A structure of oyster-shells in the form of a grotto erected and exhibited by London street-boys on the 5th of August.
| a 1845 [implied in grottoing below]. 1864 Chambers' Bk. Days II. 122. 1877 Punch 244 The Derby outing comes, like the ‘grotter’, only once a year. |
4. Comb. as grotto-work; grotto-like adj.
| 1782 Cowper Poet, Oyster, & Sensit. Plant 49 You, in your grotto-work enclosed, Complain of being thus exposed. 1840 Mrs. Norton Dream 39 There in a cool and grotto-like repose. |
Hence ˈgrottoed ppl. a., ensconced in a grotto; also, formed into grottoes; grottoˈesque a., resembling a grotto; also absol.; ˈgrottoing vbl. n., making grottos (sense 3).
Quot. 1863 illustrates a nonce absol. use.
| a 1748 J. Warton Fashion 21 in Dodsley Coll. Poems (1748) III. 275 Happy the grotto'd hermit with his pulse. a 1845 Hood Lost Heir 76 And the threepence he'd got by grottoing was spent in plums. 1863 J. C. Atkinson Stanton Grange 107 A massive piece of rock..supplying them with a kind of natural grotto-esque back to the recess. 1881 J. P. Briscoe Old Notts. 123 Only a groto-esque [sic] summer house to the Castle when it was inhabited. 1892 Ld. Lytton King Poppy Prol. 301 Grey, gaunt, and silent as its grotto'd rock. 1955 S. Spender Making of Poem 101 Gilded Romanticism is atmosphere in the Ballad-makers, fancy in Shakespeare and the other Elizabethans, desperation in the Jacobeans, the grottoesque in Pope. |