peccadillo
(pɛkəˈdɪləʊ)
Also 6 peccadilia, 7 -dil(l)io, -diglio, 8 -dilla; 7 peccha-, peca-, piccadillo; picadilio, pickadilla, 8 pecadiglio.
[a. Sp. pecadillo (-ðiljo), dim. of pecado sin, or It. peccadiglio (Florio, 1611).]
A small or venial fault or sin; a trifling offence.
| 1591 Harington Apol. Poet. Orl. Fur. ¶iv, I omit as his peccadilia, how he nicknameth priests. 1600 O. E. Repl. Libel i. viii. 205 The Spaniard is saide to account it but a Peccadillo or little fault. 1607 Sir J. H. in Harington's Nugæ Ant. (ed. Park 1804) II. 7 Some peccadilios of yours. 1637 Bastwick Litany i. 19 Accounted..but peccadiglios. 1647 Sir R. Stapylton Juvenal vi. 85 Lust appeares a peccadillio. Ibid. xiii. 241 Yet these are peccadilio's. 1652 Brooks Precious Remedies (1653) 29 When this peccadillo..and a hot fiery furnace stood in competition. 1670 Sir J. Bramston Autobiog. 143 This is but a picadilio. 1697 Vanbrugh Relapse v. iii, Mr. Bull said it was a Peckadilla. 1708 Nelson Let. Hanger in Secretan Life (1860) 192 Never reckon an excess in drinking a small fault, a pecadiglio. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) III. 206 She'll know enough of me, not to wonder at such a peccadilla. a 1845 Hood Ode R. Wilson xiv, Schemes..That frown upon St. Giles's sins, but blink The peccadilloes of all Piccadilly. |
| attrib. 1600 tr. Amyraldus' Treat. conc. Relig. iii. vi. 421 Those which they lookt upon as piccadillo sins. 1797 M. Robinson Walsingham II. 221 The..amours of him whose peccadillo follies are the subject of universal ridicule. |