Piccadilly

See also: piccadilly

English

Etymology

From Pickadilly Hall, a house belonging to a tailor 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 from 1743; previously the area was called Portugal, and the street Portugal Street (1692), after Catherine of Braganza.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɪkəˈdɪli/

Proper noun

Piccadilly

1. Piccadilly, a street running from Hyde Park Corner to Piccadilly Circus.
   • 1881, W. S. Gilbert, Patience, act 1:

     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.

   • 1912, Henry James Williams, It's a Long Way To Tipperary:

     Goodbye Piccadilly,
     Farewell Leicester Square -
     It's a long, long way to Tipperary
     But my heart's right there.

2. The surrounding area.
3. (rail transport) Manchester Piccadilly station, the main railway station in Manchester.
4. (rail transport) The Piccadilly Line of the London Underground, originally known as the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway.
   • 2024 March 6, Stefanie Foster, “The changing face of the Piccadilly...”, in RAIL, number 1004, page 52:

     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.

5. A number of places elsewhere:
   1. A suburb of Swinton, Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SK4598).
   2. A village in Kingsbury parish, North Warwickshire district, Warwickshire, England, named after Piccadilly in London (OS grid ref SP2298).
   3. A hamlet in Beechingstoke parish, Wiltshire, England (OS grid ref SU0959).
   4. A small town in Adelaide Hills council area, South Australia.
   5. A suburb of Kalgoorlie, City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia.
   6. A community of Central Frontenac, Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada.
   7. A community of Piccadilly Slant-Abraham's Cove, Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Derived terms

• Piccadilly Circus