isabella

alternative obsolete Isabella

1. uncountableA pale grey-yellow, fawn, cream-brown or parchment colour.First known use 1600

   If it be exposed to heat as soon as it is moderately warm, its dark olive colour changes almost suddenly to an Isabella colour, it becomes cloudy, and an abundant precipitate falls[…]

   1864, Sir William Crookes, Chemical News and Journal of Industrial Science, volume 10, page 301

   Synonyms: isabel, isabelle, isabelline, parchment

1. A female given name from Hebrew.

   [C]an you ſo ſteed me, / As bring me to the ſight of Iſabella, / A Nouice of this place, and the faire Siſter / To her vnhappie brother Claudio?

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v], page 64, column 1

   1 more example

   A contemporary, and usually very accurate chronicler, Bartholomew of Norwich, tells us that the queen called her infant by the barbarous name of Walkiniana; others again call her Isabella; but, in the wardrobe accounts, and all other state records, she is invariably designated Elizabeth.

   1857 Mary Anne Everett Green, Lives of the Princesses of England, Vol. 3, page 2 ("Elizabeth, eighth daughter of Edward I")

2. A locality in the Oberon council area, eastern New South Wales, Australia.

plural Isabellas

1. countableA grape cultivar popular in the former USSR derived from the grape species Vitis labrusca.
2. obsoleteuncountableObsolete form of isabella.

   The late Queen Victoria drove behind horses of a peculiar shade which nothing but Isabella color would describe. Now it is to appear in furs for the élite.

   1901 August 18, “Women Here and There”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2025

   2 more examples

   If it be exposed to heat as soon as it is moderately warm, its dark olive colour changes almost suddenly to an Isabella colour, it becomes cloudy, and an abundant precipitate falls[…]

   1864, Sir William Crookes, Chemical News and Journal of Industrial Science, volume 10, page 301

   Mr. and Mrs. Moes left after the reception for New York and other places, the bride wearing Burgundy cloth with a chic grey hat and veil and Isabella fox furs.

   1915 October 28, “Weddings”, in The Globe, volume LXXII, number 20,523, Toronto, Ont., →OCLC, page 8, column 1