piccadilly
n. countablen. a large, stiff collar that people wore around their necks in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was a very fancy fashion item for wealthy people.
n. a high, stiffened collar or ruff, often with a scalloped or tabbed edge, fashionable in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The term is the likely etymological source for the name of London's Piccadilly Circus.
The nobleman wore a lace piccadilly with his velvet suit.
Historical portraits from the Elizabethan era often depict courtiers wearing an elaborate piccadilly to signal their high social status.
While the piccadilly has long since vanished from modern wardrobes, its legacy persists in the name of one of London's most famous junctions, originally named after a tailor's house.
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.
Archaic in general use; primarily encountered in historical or fashion-history contexts.