Italianadj.n.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 3 e shall be sounded lyke an italian a and some thynge in the noose.

1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes So manie and so strange bookes..as be written in the Italian toong.

a1639 H. Wotton Let. in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (1651) 476 I cannot (according to the Italian Phrase..) accuse the receipt of any Letter from you.

1750 Ld. Chesterfield Let. 8 Mar. (1932) (modernized text) IV. 1514 What Italian books have you read..?

a1822 P. B. Shelley Let. to — in Posthumous Poems (1824) 68 We will have books; Spanish, Italian, Greek.

1571 J. De Beau Chesne & J. Baildon (title) A booke containing diuers sortes of hands, with the Italian, Roman, Chancelry & court hands.

1643 A. Wood in Life & Times (1891) I. 98 There was a paper found pasted, in a fayre Italian hand, thus inscribed: Quaestiones [etc.].

1789 H. L. Piozzi Observ. Journey France I. 195 Italian hand was the first to become elegant.

1870 J. A. H. Murray in Leisure Hour 60 A specimen of the closing period of that Old English or Gothic hand~writing, which was so rapidly disappearing before the Italian or current hand of the present day.

1439 Rolls Parl. V. 32/1 Lumbardes, Itaylions, and..other Merchauntes Aliens.

a1500 ( J. Yonge tr. Secreta Secret. (Rawl.) (1898) 130 The ytaliance sayth, that in a kynge hit is noght reproue yf he be scarse to hym-Selfe.

1573 in W. H. Stevenson Rec. Borough Nottingham (1889) IV. 149 Geven to the Italyans for serteyne pastymes that they shewed before Master Meare.

1611 J. Florio Rules Ital. Tongue in Queen Anna's New World of Words 618 The Italians haue two very different sounds for the two vowels E and O.

1783 H. Swinburne Trav. in Two Sicilies I. 398 Another monument..commemorating a victory gained..by thirteen Italians over an equal number of French.

1818 A. Ranken Hist. France V. v. 401 The great merchants of Europe were the Italians.

1485 W. Caxton in Malory's Morte Darthur Pref. sig. ij^v Moo bookes [are] made of his noble actes..as wel in duche ytalyen spaynysshe and grekysshe as in frensshe.

a1549 A. Borde Fyrst Bk. Introd. Knowl. (1870) xxiii. 179 Who that wyl learne some Italien.

1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet iii. ii. 251 The story is extant, and written in very choice Italian.

1757 tr. J. G. Keyssler Trav. II. 192 This distich was ingeniously translated into Italian by Bellori.

1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes What and whosoeuer he be that thinkes himselfe a very good Italian.

1883 Daily News 12 Sept. 2/5 Tows and hemps... Italians have advanced £1 per ton.

1891 Daily News 20 Oct. 2/7 Eggs..There has been a rise of 6d. on second Italians.

1897 Sears, Roebuck Catal. No. 104. 177/1 Fine Italian lining in fancy figured effects.

1900 T. Eaton & Co. Catal. Midwinter Sale 13/2 Ladies' black boucle curl cloth jackets.., lined throughout with mercerized Italian.

1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 743/1 Jackets..in serges and cloths, lined Italian.

1960 Textile Terms & Definitions (Textile Inst.) (ed. 4) 82 Italian,..a cloth of 5-end sateen weave with a lustrous finish, used chiefly as a lining material.

1929 J. B. Priestley Good Compan. ii. i. 264 Couldn't you take some cocktails—gin and Italian or sherry and bitters or something—upstairs to those people.

1957 G. Bellairs Death in High Provence vii. 80 Two long Italians with some ice and perrier, please.

1840 C. Dewey in Dewey & Emerson Rep. Herbaceous Plants & Quadrupeds Mass. 66 Trifolium incarnatum, Italian clover.

1908 Animal Managem. (War Office) 109 ‘Valerian’, ‘Italian’ or ‘Crimson clover’, commonly called ‘Trifolium’.

1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 18. ¶1 It is my Design in this Paper to deliver down to Posterity a faithful Account of the Italian Opera.

1764 K. O'Hara Midas ii. 43 Air XVIII. To an Italian Opera tune.

1802 C. Wilmot Irish Peer on Continent (1920) 39 We have been to the Opera Buffa or the Italian Opera.

1817 Examiner No. 486. 253 This lady at the Italian Opera is respectable: on the English stage she was formidable.

1883 Cent. Mag. Nov. 158/2 Americans..have grown up with Italian opera, which for more than half a century has kept the field.

1985 J. Kerman Musicol. 53 Under the Italianate composer J.A. Hasse (‘Il Sassone’) and his wife the prima donna assoluta Faustina Bordoni, Dresden was just then becoming the German centre for modern Italian opera.

2000 J. Rosselli in J. Potter Cambr. Compan. Singing vii. 85 Patterned songs—airs— did not, as in Italian opera of the same period, stop the action to dwell on an ‘affect’ or emotional state for seven or eight minutes.

1924 A. Huxley Let. 25 Feb. (1969) 228 The best form, I think, would be something small, cheap and pretty. Covers of Italian paper or something of the kind.

1930 Times Lit. Suppl. 6 Feb. 108/4 A large variety of Italian papers.

1896 T. W. Stapleton & Co. Wine List Dec. Vermouth, Italian—36/–.

1900 Punch 17 Jan. 54/1 I'm dieting myself on Italian vermouth.

1925 N. Toye & A. H. Adair Drinks Long & Short 12 Three and a half glasses of gin, one and a half of Italian Vermouth.

1967 A. Lichine Encycl. Wines & Spirits 541/1 Vermouth was certainly being made in Italy in the seventeenth century, and now it is produced all over the world, and the two main types are ‘French’ and ‘Italian’.

1838 J. C. Loudon Arboretum IV. 2464 The common, or evergreen, Cypress... Synonymes…the Italian Cypress.

1923 L. H. Bailey Cultivated Evergreens ii. 208 Italian Cypress... Much planted since ancient times in southern Europe particularly in its columnar form.

1923 L. H. Bailey Cultivated Evergreens ii. 208 Columnar Italian C[ypress]... With erect branches, forming a narrow, columnar head. The classical cypress of the Greek and Roman writers.

1969 T. H. Everett Living Trees of World 35/1 The Italian cypress is really a horticultural form of venerable ancestry, its exact origin unknown.

1854 F. W. Fairholt Dict. Terms Art 260/1 Italian earth, a pigment known as burnt Italian earth.

1897 Sears, Roebuck Catal. No. 104. 361/2 Pastel Crayons..Burnt Sienna..Italian Earth..Purple Brown.

1969 R. Mayer Dict. Art Terms & Techniques 200 Italian earth, an old name for sienna.

1822 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Gardening i. i. 16 He [sc. Volkman] considers the Italian gardens as inferior to those of France in point of superb alleys, lofty clipt hedges, and cabinets of verdure.]

1883 W. Robinson Eng. Flower Garden p. vi/2 It has been affirmed that none but an Italian garden would have suited South Kensington.

1925 Daily Tel. 13 May 19/4 Peacehaven... On main road, close to and overlooking sea and Italian gardens.

1928 L. Archer-Hind tr. M. L. Gothein Hist. Garden Art II. xvi. 329 We feel the resemblance to the parterre of the Doria Pamfili when we walk through an ‘Italian garden’ at an English country seat.

1942 A. E. W. Mason Musk & Amber i. 10 The Italian garden.., an oblong of grass paths and glowing flower beds, of box trees and hedges, of stone seats..and..a ridiculous charming little temple with open pillars.

1961 G. Masson Italian Gardens 274 Within the space of two hundred and fifty years, Italian gardens had been introduced into France, developed and expanded until they represented a national style that became the model for Europe, and then via Spain returned to their point of departure, the Neapolitan Realm, as a foreign innovation.

1797 Encycl. Brit. at Acer Italian maple.

1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. II. 726/1 Italian May, Spiræa Filipendula.

1858 R. Hogg Veg. Kingdom 696 The acorns of Q. esculus, or Italian Oak, have somewhat prickly cups, and are long, slender, and esculent.

1845 E. Acton Mod. Cookery i. 5 All the ingredients used for soups should be fresh,..particularly Italian pastes of every kind (maccaroni, vermicelli, &c.).

1851 Official Descriptive & Illustr. Catal. Great Exhib. IV. 1313 Italian pastes of various kinds, and samples of vermicelli.

1907 Army & Navy Co-operative Soc.: Rules & Price List 1246/2 Italian paste, for soups.

1957 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 544/2 Macaroni... The same substance in different forms is also known as vermicelli, pasta or Italian pastes, spaghetti, taglioni, fanti, etc.

1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. I. 59 Anagallis,..Pimpernels, by which name the species are popularly known... Every one is familiar with the common red Pimpernel (A. arvensis). The A. indica, with blue flowers, scarcely differs from it, except in colour and the larger size of its blossoms... The Italian Pimpernel (A. Monelli), with still larger flowers.

1835 G. Field Chromatogr. ix. 84 Dutch Pink, English and Italian Pinks, are sufficiently absurd names of yellow colours prepared by dyeing, whitening, &c. with vegetal yellow tinctures, in the manner of rose pink, from which they borrow their name.

1934 H. Hiler Notes Technique Painting ii. 111 Italian pink, quercitron lake, etc., organic pigments prepared from Turkish or Avignon berries, quercitron bark, etc.

1971 Country Life 10 June 1428/3 This leads into the north-facing hall, which has been painted an Italian pink as a background to full-length portraits.

1887 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Italian plaster, an old name for a plaster used for purging sordid ulcers and promoting granulation.

1937 E. Hake Eng. Quilting iii. 16 Italian quilting..was as prevalent in England as in any other European country during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

1955 Oxf. Junior Encycl. XI. 323/1 Italian quilting consists of two layers of cloth sewn together in a design built up entirely of parallel lines. A padding of soft wool or piping cord is then threaded between the narrow channels.

1967 E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage ii. 47 In Italian quilting the design is worked entirely in parallel lines of running or back stitch, which are then padded by inserting a thick wool from the back.

1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 278 Reseda..is called..in English Italian Rocket.

1875 F. A. G. Ouseley Harmony (ed. 2) xi. 126 A discord which has been called an ‘Italian Sixth’.

1882 S. F. A. Caulfeild & B. C. Saward Dict. Needlework 252/2 Holbein Stitch, also known as Italian Stitch, and used in Holbein Embroidery to cover the outline patterns that form the work.

1913 M. K. Gifford Needlework xvii. 262 Italian stitch can be worked either open or close. The latter makes a very solid filling.

1957 M. B. Picken Fashion Dict. 185/2 Italian-stitch, running stitch done twice on the same line.

1837 N. Whittock et al. Compl. Bk. Trades Table, Italian Warehouse.

1863 Good Words 4 870/1 You are mistaken as to the Italian warehouse.