colonial, a. (n.)
(kəˈləʊnɪəl)
[f. L. colōnia colony + -al1: so in mod.Fr.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of, belonging to, or relating to a colony, or (spec.) the British colonies; in American history, of or belonging to the thirteen British colonies which became the United States, or to the time while they were still colonies. Now freq. derogatory. Cf. colonialism 2.
| [1755–73 not in Johnson.] 1796 Burke Regic. Peace iv. Wks. IX. 92 In all our Colonial Councils. 1846 M{supc}Culloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) II. 13 Coffee, indigo, spices, and other foreign and colonial articles. 1858 Longfellow Phantom Ship i, In Mather's Magnalia Christi Of the old colonial time. 1875 Jevons Money (1878) 121 In foreign and colonial mints. 1876 Humphreys Coin-Coll. Man. xxiii. 308 The colonial was a form of provincial government which prevailed in the Augustan age. 1884 Standard 28 Feb. 5/1 In defiance of the expressed wishes of the Colonial Office. 1954 J. Collin-Smith Scorpion on Stone xx. 288 People say white Africa is narrow and limited in outlook—‘colonial’ they say, don't they? 1957 L. Durrell Bitter Lemons 146 The United Nations,..whose attention could be more quickly drawn to ‘colonial oppression’ than to an Indian famine. 1958 Spectator 14 Feb. 201/3 Firm paternal rule of the kind which it is now fashionable to condemn as ‘imperialistic’ or ‘colonial’. |
b. Belonging to, or characteristic of, the period of the colonies,
esp. of architecture or furniture.
N. Amer.| 1776 in Rec. Early Hist. Boston (1887) XVIII. 240 How many Persons belonging to this Family are now in the Service? Is it Continental, or Coloniel? Ibid. 242 The Question [was] accordingly put—Whether holding any military Commission in the Continental or Colonial Army is not incompatable [sic] with holding any Civil Trust? 1831 P. Hone Diary (1889) I. 34, I..got very good colonial quarters, near the bath-house. 1886 Harper's Mag. Oct. 668/1 The building has rather a colonial character with its long corridors and pillared piazzas. 1892 Kipling Lett. of Travel (1920) 21 The Colonial craze, which means white paint and fluted pillars. 1939 A. J. Toynbee Study Hist. VI. 60 The Americans use the term ‘Colonial’ for the eighteenth-century style of architecture which the English call ‘Georgian’. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Feb. 30/5 (Advt.), Custom built Colonial home, five charming bedrooms on second floor. |
c. Dealing in produce of colonial origin.
| 1872 Post Office Directory Grocery & Oil & Color Trades 19 Colonial Agents... Home, Foreign & Colonial Agency. Ibid. 21 Colonial Dealers. 1895 Home & Colonial Stores Ltd. Prospectus, The well-known business of The Home and Colonial Stores, which has experienced an uninterrupted and highly successful development since its establishment in 1888. 1920 W. de la Mare in Times Lit. Suppl. 12 Feb. 103/2 Tchehov's father opened a ‘Colonial Stores’. 1928 Daily Mail 25 July 18/1 Colonial Merchants. |
2. Biol. Forming a colony (see
colony 8).
| 1885 H. N. Moseley in Times 16 Jan. 5/5 Colonial animals were animals consisting in an aggregation of individuals of the same species. Another term often used..was..compound animals. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 725 The colonial Anthozoa. |
B. n. 1. An inhabitant of a colony;
= colonist 1 b.
| 1865 Fraser's Mag. Oct. 433 The colonials are as sensitive to home criticisms as the Yankees. 1885 Froude Oceana xviii, The rising generation of colonials. |
2. Often used
ellipt.,
e.g. for
colonial bishop,
colonial product, etc., the
n. being supplied by the context.
| 1886 Daily News 13 Dec. 2/6 Best skins..sell readily, while the finer colonials have receded slightly. |
3. A house built in the colonial style of architecture.
N. Amer.| 1936 L. C. Douglas White Banners ix. 194 Eleven-room colonial, four baths, two-car garage, spacious grounds. 1965 H. van Siller Complete Stranger (1966) 10 Lovely old white frame mansions, most of them authentic Colonials. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 15 Jan. 23/1 (Advt.), Huge 2 storey Colonial located in a quiet exclusive Avenue. |
C. attrib. and
Comb., and special collocations, as
colonial-born,
colonial-manufactured adjs.;
colonial edition (see
quot. 1960);
colonial experience Austral. and
N.Z., experience gained by an immigrant to Australia or New Zealand; also
attrib.;
colonial goose Austral. and
N.Z., boned leg of mutton stuffed with sage and onions;
colonial oven,
stove N.Z. (see
quot. 1933).
| 1900 Daily News 7 Mar. 5/5 Colonial-born men led the rebels. 1907 B. M. Croker Company's Servant x. 92 The battered ‘colonial edition’ of a popular novel. 1960 Glaister Gloss. Bk. 76/1 Colonial editions, originally, editions of novels bought in sheets from English publishers by exporting firms who issued them in cheap bindings for sale in the Colonies. Subsequently, publishers produced their own colonial editions, bound in cheap boards, and with a title-page indicating that they were solely for export sale. |
| 1851 W. Deans Let. 4 June in J. Deans Pioneers of Canterbury (1937) 207 These gentlemen having colonial experience and capital will make first rate settlers. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer x, You're the first ‘colonial experience’ young fellow that it ever occurred to. 1891 Argus (Melbourne) 7 Nov. 13/5 They were colonial experience men. 1928 ‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country ii. 28 Industrious young people with Colonial experience like they have need have no fears about getting on. |
| 1897 Mrs. F. Courage Lights & Shadows of Colonial Life v. 37, I..declined it..and also ‘Colonial goose’, and bullock's heart. |
| 1906 Westm. Gaz. 15 Jan. 15/3 Colonial-manufactured furniture is merely put together in Capetown. |
| 1933 L. G. D. Acland in Press (Christchurch) 30 Sept. 15/7 Colonial oven, a plain oven without divisions, trays, or dampers, like a box with a door at one side. It is set a little above the floor of the fireplace so that a fire can be put under it for baking. 1963 B. Pearson Coal Flat iv. 61 There was an old-fashioned open fireplace with a hot coal fire..with a colonial oven alongside it. |
| 1883 ‘A Lady’ Facts N.Z. ii. 8 Small cottages of four rooms with Colonial stoves. Ibid. iii. 19, I ought to explain that a Colonial stove is simply an iron box with a door, and in it everything is baked—on it the fire is set. |