[L., = ‘firm land,’ used in med. or mod.L. in special senses = It. terra ferma, F. terre ferme; cf. G. festland. In 17th c. partly a. It. terra ferma.]
† 1. A mainland or continent, as distinct from portions of land partly or wholly isolated by water.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 31. He [Ptolemy] draws his Terra firma only to 10 degrees South from the Æquator.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Terra firma, the Continent, or main Land; so call’d by Geographers.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 164. Our men … said that about three leagues off to the southward, there seemed to be a Terra Firma, or continent of land.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Terra firma … is sometimes used for a continent, in contradistinction to islands.
† 2. spec. a. The territories on the Italian mainland which were subject to the state of Venice. Obs.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, II. i. Gentlemen of your City; strangers of the terra-firma; worshipful merchants; ay, and senators too.
1645. Evelyn, Diary, June (1819), I. 192. We went to Padua…. The first terra firma we landed at was Fusina, being onely an inn, where we changed our barge.
1832. trans. Sismondi’s Ital. Rep., xiv. 308. The two monarchs agreed to divide between them all the terra firma of the Venetians.
† b. The northern coast-land of South America (Colombia), as distinguished from the West India Islands; also, in narrower sense, the Isthmus of Panama. Obs.
1760–72. trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy. (ed. 3), I. p. vii. Geographical descriptions … of the country about Carthagena,… the Terra Firma.
1827. Roberts, Voy. Centr. Amer., 71. A race of people … more civilized than most of the other tribes, inhabiting this part of Terra Firma.
3. The land as distinguished from the sea; dry or firm land; in quot. 1785, the earth. Also fig.
1693. Ray, Disc., I. iii. 24. The whole terra firma, or dry Land.
1707. Norris, Treat. Humility, iii. 111. Here we have some terra firma to fix and stay our footing on.
1779. Hist. Mod. Europe, II. I. 65. They again got footing on terra firma.
1785. Burns, Ep. to W. Simpson, 105. While terra firma, on her axis, Diurnal turns.
1820. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., Com., I. 72. That their feet find no resting-place on sea Or terra-firma.
1887. Miss Braddon, Like & Unlike, xxxiv. I was not often upon terra firma after I left Marseilles.
† 4. humor. and colloq. Landed estate; land.
1698. Farquhar, Love & Bottle, III. ii. I have five thousand acres of as good fighting ground as any in England, good terra firma, sir.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Dipt, He has dipt his Terra firma, he has mortgaged his dirty Acres. Ibid., Terra-firma, an Estate in Land.
1728. Fielding, Love in Sev. Masques, V. vi. Does your estate lie in terra firma, or in the stocks?
