colbertine

English edit

Etymology edit

From Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a minister of Louis XIV, who encouraged the lace manufacture in France.

Noun edit

colbertine (uncountable)

(obsolete) A kind of lace.
- 1708, [Jonathan Swift], “The Metamorphosis of Baucis and Philemon, Burlesqu’d; from the 8th Book of Ovid”, in Baucis and Philemon; a Poem. […], London: […] H. Hills, […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 7:
  Inſtead of Home-ſpun quoifs were ſeen / Good Pinners, edg'd with Colberteen: [...]
- 1725–1728, [Edward Young], “(please specify the page)”, in Love of Fame, the Universal Passion. In Seven Characteristical Satires, 4th edition, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson […], published 1741, →OCLC:
  Difference rose between Mechlin, the queen of lace, and Colberteen.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “colbertine”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)