piccadilly

What it means

1. obsoletepiccadill

In a sentence

The Inn that I speak of is about the Middle of Piccadilly upon the left hand.

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

Where it comes from

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.