Forms: 4–6 lumbarde, 5 lumbert, 6 lombarde, -berde, lumbart, -bertte, 7 lombart, 8 lombar, 6– lombard. [a. F. lombard (whence MLG. lombard, MDu. lombaert, mod.Du. lombard), ad. It. lombardo (med.L. lombardus), contracted repr. late L. Langobardus, Longobardus, Teut. *Laŋgobarđo-z, -barđon- (OE. pl. Langbeardas, -beardan, ON. pl. Langbarðar); a compound of *laŋgo- LONG a. with the proper name of the people, which appears in L. form as Bardi; in OE. poetry they are called Heaðobeardan (f. heaðo war).
The sense ‘banker, money-lender, pawnbroker’ was common in OFr., whence it passed to MLG. and MDu. The sense ‘bank, pawnbroker’s shop’ was prob. developed in MLG. and MDu., and seems to have been adopted thence into Eng.; in this sense a fem. lombaerde occurs in MDu. beside the masc. lombaert (Du. lombard, lommerd). A special development of meaning belongs to the variant LUMBER sb.]
A. sb.
1. a. Hist. A person belonging to the Germanic people (L. Langobardi: see above) who conquered Italy in the 6th century, and from whom Lombardy received its name. b. A native of Lombardy.
1480. Egerton MS., 1765, in Gross, Gild Merch., II. 71. No man … shall supporte nether mayntene no Lumbarde, brytton, ne Spaynnarde.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden), 37. Hongyd … for kyllynge of two Lumberttes in a bote on the Temse.
1570. Levins, Manip., 30/30. A Lumbarde, longobardus.
1598. Grenewey, Tacitus, Ann., II. v. (1622), 146. The King … reenforcing his army with the aide of the Lombards,… molested and annoyed the Cherusci.
1662. J. Bargrave, Pope Alex. VII. (1867), 79. Although he be a good Lumbard—which is as much as to say, an enemy to hypocrisy.
1695. Dryden, Dufresnoy’s Art Painting, 94. Excepting only Titian, who, of all the Lombards has preserv’d the greatest purity in his works.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V. (1797), I. i. 74. Thither the Lombards brought the productions of India.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 66. Alboin, king of the Lombards … subdued Italy without resistance.
1902. Speaker, 10 May, 167/2. A colony of Lombards should be induced to settle on the soil.
† 2. A native of Lombardy engaged as a banker, money-changer or pawnbroker; hence applied gen. to a person carrying on any of these businesses.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 242. I lerned amonge Lumbardes and Iewes a lessoun, To wey pens with a peys.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Shipm. T., 367. This Marchant … Creaunced hath … To certeyn lumbardes … The somme of gold.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. V. 194. Lumbardes of Lukes that lyuen by lone as Iewes.
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 362. He was a gret goldit man,… I leit him be my lumbart.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., II. ii. (Arb.), 34. If he haue not one Lumbardes touche, my lucke is bad.
1590. Greene, Mourn. Garm. (1616), 44. They are fallen to the Lombard, left at the Brokers.
1687. Burnet, Trav., ii. (1750), 96. They told me … that all Europe over a Lombard and a Banker signified the same thing.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 57, ¶ 2. I am an honester Man than Will. Coppersmith, for all his great Credit among the Lombards.
† 3. The shop or place of business of a ‘Lombard’; a bank, money-changer’s or money-lender’s office; a pawnshop, a mont de piété. See also the later form LUMBER. Obs.
1609. Markham, Famous Whore (1868), 23. No sooner got I coine … But to the bancke or lumbard straight it went.
1620. Melton, Astrolog., 44. It hath bin many a Gallants good fortune to haue a braue Sute of Clothes on his back on the morning, yet it hath bin his bad fortune to haue them in the Lombard before night.
1622. T. Scott, Belg. Pismire, 79. Their Lumbards or Loane-houses are principally for the benefit of the poore, where Brokers are not suffered to take fifty, or one hundred in the hundred.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Lombar or Lombard, a Bank or Place where Money is let out upon Usury and Pawns.
1764. Burn, Poor Laws, 169. The said fathers of the poor may have power to erect petty banks and lumbards for the benefit of the poor.
1799. W. Tooke, View Russian Emp., II. 508. Her ukase concerning the imperial lombard of the year 1786.
[1849. Freese, Comm. Class-bk., 19. Lombards was a name given formerly in the Netherlands, France and England, to loan banks or lending houses.]
† 4. Cookery. [ellipt.: see B. 2.] Some kind of dish or culinary preparation. Obs.
1657. Reeve, God’s Plea, 130. The Hoga’s, and Olies, and Lumbards of these times.
B. adj.
1. Belonging to the Lombards or to Lombardy; Lombardic.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxiii. 16. He fled and come in France, With littill of Lumbard leid.
1645. Milton, Tetrach., Wks. 1851, IV. 181 (Deut. xxiv. 1, 2). These ages wherein Canons, and Scotisms, and Lumbard Laws … almost obliterated the lively Sculpture of ancient reason.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort., Oct. (1679), 26. Pears … Lombart-pear, Russet-pear [etc.].
1741. Hume, Ess., xv. Of Liberty, 178. The Lombard School [of painting] was famous as well as the Roman.
1833. Sir S. R. Glynne, Notes Ch. Lanc. (Chetham Soc.), 3. An inscription in Lombard letter.
1845. Graves, Rom. Law, in Encycl. Metrop., II. 779/1. The Feudorum Consuetudines,—a Lombard compilation of feudal law, formed about the middle of the 12th century.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., I. i. 8. The marts of England were frequented by Lombard adventurers.
1882. Garden, 14 Oct., 338/3. The Lombard Plum … holds about the same position among other varieties that the Baldwin does among Apples.
1901. Speaker, 16 March, 658/1. To him the law of Justinian was ‘Lombard law.’
† 2. Cookery. In certain AF. names of dishes as leche lumbard (see LEACH sb.1 2); frutour lumbard [frutour = FRITTER]; rys lumbard [F. ris sweetbread]. Also in lombard pie (see LUMBER-PIE).
c. 1390. [see LEACH sb.1 2].
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 35. Leche lumbarde.
1452. Reliq. Ant., I. 88. Frutour lumbert … Lesshe lumbert.
1466–7. Durh. Acct. Rolls (Surtees), 91. Et in 2 lib. dell powderlomberd empt. de eodem, 3s. 3d.
14[?]. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 438. Rys Lumbarde.—Leche Lumbarde.
† 3. Lombard fever: = FEVER-LURDEN. Obs. [Cf. dial. lomber, to idle.]
1678. Ray, Prov. (ed. 2), 75. Sick o’th’ Lombard feaver, or of the idles.
Hence † Lombardeer, ‘an usurer or broaker’ (Blount, Glossogr., 1656); Lombardesque a., resembling the Lombard school of painters; Lombardian a. = LOMBARDIC a.; † Lombardinian a., characteristic of a ‘Lombard’ or usurer; † Lombardish a., Lombardic; Lombardism, a Lombardic idiom; Lombardo-, taken as a comb. form (after It. Lombardo-Veneto) with the sense ‘Lombardic combined with ….’
c. 1489. Caxton, Fayte of A., IV. viii. 249. Another scripture that men calle the lombardishe lawe.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 36. [The Jesuits] commit extortion, symony, and all Lombardinian kind of deuises to make gain of.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., vi. 24. By their profession they are for the most part Broakers, and Lombardeers.
1819. W. S. Rose, Lett., I. 232. We shall observe him [Ariosto] grafting on it a thousand Latinisms and Lombardisms not yet naturalized.
1837–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. I. viii. § 7. 423. The rude Lombardisms of the Lower Po gave way to the racy idiom of Florence.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIV. 104/2. The Lombardo-Venetian kingdom is in a thriving and progressive condition.
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., No. 81. 11/2. The Lombardian despots.
1879. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit., I. 44. A style somewhat analogous to the Lombardo-Rhenish.
1894. Gould, Illustr. Dict. Med., Pellagra, Ergotism, Lombardian Leprosy, an endemic … skin-disease … due to chronic poisoning with diseased … maize.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 26 March, 4/2. Sodoma remained to the end a Lombardesque artist.
