pigace
.
Searchable Lemmata: pigace (AF).
Alternate Forms: pigaase, pigaz, pigacias.
Definitions and Defining Citations:
1(n.)
Accessory;
long point or spike on the toe of a shoe; a shoe with a long, pointed toe (cf. the later crakow; also, pike). In extended uses: a jot, a tittle.
The MED reports the meaning 'A part of a horses foot', and also notes the expressions, 'ben to thi ~', 'rechen to his ~', 'to him ben ~' suggesting a meaning 'to be equal to him (you)' [s.v. 'pigace, pigas(e, n.']. It is likely that these uses refer metaphorically to similarly elongated or ostentatious footwear. 'Pigaces' are first mentioned in Britain in Orderic Vitalis' early 12th-century Ecclesiastical History (refering to the late 11th Century France and England).(circa 1130 ?)
1. Unde sutores in calciamentis quasi caudas scorpionum quas vulgo pigacias appellant faciunt; idque genus calciamenti pene cuncti divites et egeni nimium expetunt. Nam antea omni tempore rotundi subtolares ad formam pedum agebantur; eisque summi et mediocres clerici et laici competenter utebantur. ... Robertus quidam nebulo in curia Rufi regis prolixas pigacias primus cepit implere stuppis; et hinc inde contorquere instar cornu arietis.
[LexP Orderic Vitalis (Eccl. Hist. IV, 183-192) circa 1130]
Sex: Male Use: Secular Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Foot.
Etymological Evidence:
Definite, AF/Old French (pigache, pighace, pighage; by the 14th century); cf. L pica (pick, pike).
WF:
Etym Cog:
References:
