[a. Fr. annonciade, ad. It. annunziāta, f. annunciar:—L. annuntiāre to announce: see -ADE.] A name given to: a. A military order founded by Amadeus VI. of Savoy in 1362 under the title ‘Knights of the true lover’s knot,’ and re-named, on the accession of Amadeus VIII. to the Pontificate in 1439, in honor of the Annunciation of the angel Gabriel; b. A female religious order founded by Queen Jane of France; a nun of that order.
1706. trans. Dupin’s Eccl. Hist., II. IV. xi. 459. She [Queen Jane, Daughter of King Lewis XI.] instituted the Order of the Annunciation, or the Annonciades.
1711. Lond. Gaz., mmmmdclxxi/1. The Marquis de Tana, Knight of the Annunciade. Ibid. (1712), mmmmmli/1. All the Knights of the Annuntiade … assisted at the Chapel [in Turin].
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Annunciate, Knights of the Annunciata, or Annuntiada, was a military order … at first called the order of the true lovers knots, in memory of a bracelet of hair presented to the founder by a lady.
