a. and sb. [ad. L. bracteātus, f. bractea: see BRACT.] A. adj.
1. Bot. Having bracts, bearing bracts.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot. (1858), v. 57. Flowers in heads or dense spikes, bracteate.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 291. Whorls many-flowered, axillary, or in leafy bracteate heads.
2. Formed of metal beaten thin; applied chiefly to coins, medals, or ornaments made of thin plates of gold or silver, the design being hollow on the under side and convex on the upper. Whence
B. sb. A bracteate coin or metal; also attrib.
1845. Petrie, Eccl. Archit. Irel., 213. Bracteates … coined by the first two propagators of Christianity in Denmark and Sweden.
1866. Athenæum, No. 1996. 139/1. Two Danish bracteate ornaments.
1868. G. Stephens, Runic Mon., II. 505. Few of the earlier Bracteate-stamps can be directly connected with ‘classical’ prototypes.
