Also 5 geaty, 7 ieaty, jettie. [f. JET sb.1 + -Y.]
1. Of the color of jet; jet-black.
1586. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., IV. i. His … ietty feathers menace death and hell.
1607. Walkington, Opt. Glass, Ep. to Rdr. A ij. Venus had her mole, Helena her staine, Cynthia her spots, the Swan her ieaty feete.
1724–5. Swift, Receipt to Stella, 41. Your jetty locks with garlands crown’d.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., II. i. At morn the black-cock trims his jetty wing.
b. quasi-adv. in comb., as jetty-black, jet-black.
1477–8. Bk. Curtesye (Caxton), 44. Your naylis loke they be not gety blacke [Hill MS. gety blake, Oriel MS. geet blake].
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., XXVI. 410. Among the Moors the jettiest black are deem’d The beautifull’st of them.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 136. His horny Hoofs are jetty black and round.
2. Of the nature or composition of jet.
1875. Ure’s Dict. Arts, III. 9. The jetty matter appears to have first entered the pores of the bone, and there hardened.
Hence Jettiness.
1776. Pennant, Zool. (1812), I. 441. (Reed Bunting) On the return of spring [the head] resumes its pristine jettyness.
