Piccadilly
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɪkəˈdɪli/
text: Audio (US)
Etymology: From Pickadilly Hall, a house belonging to a tailor, Robert Baker, who specialized in a type of lace collar called a piccadill, possibly from conjectured Spanish *picadillo, from picado (“punctured, pierced”); compare 17th century Spanish picadura (“a similar lace collar”).
Piccadilly attested as the London street name from 1695^(see quote); previously the main portion of the street (west of Sackville Street) was called Portugal Street (1692), after Catherine of Braganza. Piccadilly attested of the location from 1663^(see quote), Peccadillo a.1641, Pecadilly Hall a.1640ⁱᵇⁱᵈ, Pickadilly Hall 1623. All other uses appear to be derived from the London location or street name.
Senses: examples: text: The Inn that I speak of is about the Middle of Piccadilly upon the left hand.
ref: 1695, “The Tryals of Robert Charnock, Edward King, and Thomas Keyes, at the Sessions-House in the Old-Baily”, in A Compleat Collection of State-Tryals, and Proceedings Upon Impeachments for High Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanours from the Reign of King Henry the Fourth to the End of the Reign of Queen Anne, the Fourth Volume (published 1719), London: Published by Authority, via Google Books, page 19:
text: Though the Philistines may jostle, you will rank as an apostle in the high aesthetic band -
If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your mediaeval hand.
ref: 1881, W. S. Gilbert, Patience, act 1:
text: Goodbye Piccadilly,
Farewell Leicester Square -
It's a long, long way to Tipperary
But my heart's right there.
ref: 1912, Henry James Williams, It's a Long Way To Tipperary:
glosses: Piccadilly, a street running from Hyde Park Corner to Piccadilly Circus.
examples: text: Valentine Dawes, a Quaker, living in Aier-street in the Piccadilly, being for many years troubled with the Falling-Sickness, was perfectly cured; and thereupon presently became a Roman Catholick.
ref: 1663 August 1, "A. S." (probably Sir Kenelm Digby), chapter V, in Miracles Not Ceas'd, London, sourced from British Library, via Google Books, page 22:
glosses: The surrounding area.
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: Manchester Piccadilly station, the main railway station in Manchester.
examples: text: Why Piccadilly? The Piccadilly Line was originally the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway (GNP&BR) which was shortened to Piccadilly in practice. Running under the main road between Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park Corner, Piccadilly made sense and was also the most well-known location in the original company name.
ref: 2024 March 6, Stefanie Foster, “The changing face of the Piccadilly...”, in RAIL, number 1004, page 52:
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: The Piccadilly Line of the London Underground, originally known as the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway.
glosses: A number of places elsewhere:
A suburb of Swinton, Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SK4598).
glosses: A number of places elsewhere:
A village in Kingsbury parish, North Warwickshire district, Warwickshire, England, named after Piccadilly in London (OS grid ref SP2298).
glosses: A number of places elsewhere:
A hamlet in Beechingstoke parish, Wiltshire, England (OS grid ref SU0959).
glosses: A number of places elsewhere:
A small town in Adelaide Hills council area, South Australia.
glosses: A number of places elsewhere:
A suburb of Kalgoorlie, City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia.
glosses: A number of places elsewhere:
A community in Central Frontenac, Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada.
glosses: A number of places elsewhere:
A community in Piccadilly Slant-Abraham's Cove, Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Derived terms: Piccadilly Circus