sb. and a. arch. Also: 4–7 ethiope, (5 ethyope), 6–9 æthiop(e. [ad. L. Æthiops, gen. Æthiop-is, ad. Gr. Αἰθίοψ, Αἰθίοπος, ‘Ethiopian,’ commonly believed to be f. αἴθ-ειν to burn + ὄψ face, and to mean primarily ‘burnt-face’ (cf. αἴθοψ ‘fiery-looking,’ later ‘sunburnt,’ f. same or cognate elements); the formation is however not clear, and some have supposed the word to be an etymologizing corruption of a foreign ethnic name. (In Eng. now always with initial capital.)
The ‘Ethiopians’ are mentioned by Homer as a people dwelling in the far east and the far west; in later Gr. the name was applied chiefly to the inhabitants of Africa south of Egypt, but also to peoples of swarthy complexion in other parts of the world.]
A. sb. lit. = ETHIOPIAN; hence, usually, a person with a black skin, a blackamoor. Phrase, To wash an (or the) Ethiop (white): to attempt the impossible.
1382. Wyclif, Jer. xiii. 23. Yf chaunge mai an Ethiope his skyn.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xxiii. (1890), 84. Vpon his last part of therth there habitable where conuerse thethyopes.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XXXVII. x. Out there flew, ryght blacke and tedyous, A foule Ethyope.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, V. iv. 38. Ile hold my minde were she an Ethiope.
1660. Hickeringill, Jamaica (1661), 106. The truth whereof many an Æthiope hath now unwillingly asserted.
a. 1688. Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.), Ep. to Julian. As sure to miss, As they, that wash an Ethiope’s Face.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, III. ii. Though I were an Æthiop.
a. 1791. Wesley, Serm., lxviii. (1825), II. 158. In the most elegant language, she labours to wash the Æthiop white.
B. attrib. and adj.
1. = ETHIOPIAN. † Ethiop line (Milton): ? the equator.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 282. By som suppos’d True Paradise under the Ethiop Line By Nilus head.
2. Of the hue of an Ethiop; black.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., IV. iii. 35. Ethiop vvords, blacker in their effect Then in their countenance.
1635. [Glapthorne], Lady Mother, V. ii. in Bullen, O. Pl., II. 193. To hang this matchless diamond in the eare Of Ethiope Death.
1812. Heber, Transl. Pindar, II. 155. Aurora’s knight of Ethiop hue.
1818. Keats, Endymion, II. 413. The ivy mesh, Shading its Æthiop berries.
