Forms: 6–8 baldakin(e, 7 balduquino, 7–9 baldacchino, 8–9 baldachin, 9 -chine, -chino, baldaquin: see also BAUDEKIN. [a. F., Sp. baldaquin, It. baldacchino, in med.L. baldakinus, -ekinus, baudaquinus, -ekinus, f. Baldacco, It. form of Bagdad, the city in Asia where the material was made. Cf. the earlier BAUDEKIN, through OF. baudekin, -quin, usual in sense 1. The It. form baldacchino is also used.]
1. A rich embroidered stuff, originally woven with woof of silk and warp of gold thread; rich brocade.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 54. They weare Jackets … of buckeram, skarlet, or Baldakines.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Baldachin, or Baldakin, or Baldekin, popularly Baudekin … a rich kind of cloth.
1880. Yule, in Birdwood, Ind. Arts, II. 71. Rich silk and gold brocades were called Baldachini, or in English, Baudekins.
2. A structure in the form of a canopy, either supported on columns, suspended from the roof, or projecting from the wall, placed above an altar, throne or door-way; so called as having been originally of the material described in prec. sense.
1645. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 110. The room … having a state or balduquino of crimson velvet. Ibid., 145. An elevated throne, and a baldacchino, or canopy of state … over it.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xlviii. The baldaquin of St. Peter’s.
1850. Browning, Christm. Eve. Heave loftier yet the baldachin.
1878. Lady Herbert, trans. Hübner’s Trav., I. xii. 182. Heavy clouds shroud the tops of the mountains as with a baldachino.
