sb. Obs. Also 7 jessamie, jes(s)imy, jecimy, gessamy, -imy. [Corrupt. of jessamine.] 1. = JASMINE 1.
1633. Earl Manch., Al Mondo (1636), 6. Meditation is … as he that smells the Violet, the Rose, the Jessamie, and the Orange flowers dividually.
1733. Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXVIII. 179. She gnawed the Jessamy likewise, but least of all some Holly Trees.
2. A yellow color like that of yellow jasmine.
1750. E. Smith, Compl. Housew. (ed. 14), 293. If you colour them [gloves], scrape some of the following colours amongst the white-lead;… for a jessamy, yellow-oaker.
3. A perfume or cosmetic made from jasmine.
1671. Eachard, Obs. Answ. Cont. Clergy, 146. A little pot of double refin’d Jesimy, and a box full of Specifick-perfum’d Lozenges.
4. A man who scents himself with perfume or who wears a sprig of jessamine in his buttonhole (?); a dandy, a fop. See JEMMY sb. 1 b.
1753. Hawkesworth, Adventurer, 20 Oct., 176. You have frequently used the terms Buck and Blood,… but you have not considered them as the last stages of a regular procession…. The scale … consists of eight degrees; Greenhorn, Jemmy, Jessamy, Smart, Honest-Fellow, Joyous Spirit, Buck, and Blood. Ibid., 177. My labour … recommended me to the notice of the ladies, and procured me the gentle appellation of Jessamy.
1802. Mrs. J. West, Infidel Father, I. 88. If men became Jessamys, and Women Amazons. Ibid., I. 296. The half pagan half democratic dress of clerical jessamies.
5. attrib. That is a jessamy, as j. fopling; of a jessamy, as jessamy air (see 4), plant; also jessamy-butter = jasmine-butter (see JASMINE 3); jessamy-chocolate, (?) chocolate perfumed with jasmine; jessamy gloves, (?) gloves of a light yellow color.
1657. Reeve, God’s Plea, 123. How much girdles, gorgets, rose powders, gessamy butter, complexion waters do cost in our daies.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 27 Oct. I did give each of them a pair of jesimy plain gloves, and another of white.
1675. T. Duffett, Mock Temp., III. i. 22. 3 Ounces of Jessimy-butter … and 6 pair of Jessimy-Gloves.
1696. Lond. Gaz., No. 3181/4. Spanish Gessimy Plants. Ibid. (1697), No. 3302/4. Jessamy-Chocolate, with other Perfumes and Spirits; all newly come from Florence.
1756. W. Toldervy, Hist. Two Orphans, III. 106. A severe punishment to the fribbled jessamy waiter.
1800. Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1801), IV. 357. The steel-clad baron and the jessamy fopling.
1837. E. Howard, Old Commodore, II. 124. A slighter figure now steps into the stern-sheets with a gentle jessamy air.
Hence † Jessamy v. trans., to anoint or perfume with ‘jessamy’ (sense 3).
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 128/2. Terms of Art used in Barbing and Shaving … Jecimy the Hair, is to put Jecimin on the palms of your hands and rub it on the hair.
