Piccadilly

(W1) In Blount's Glossography, published the term "pickadill" is thus defined: "The round hem of a garment, or other thing; also a kinde of stiff collar, made in fashion of a band." However, perhaps that famous Ordinary near St. James's, called Pickadilly, took denomination because it was then the outmost or skirt-house of the suburbs that way. Others say it took name from this, that one Higgin, a tailor, who built it, got most of his estate by Pickadillies, which at that time were much worn in England. In Gerard's Herbal, published in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1596) , the author, talking of "the small buglosse," says this little flower "grows upon the drie ditch bankes about Pickadilla," from which it would appear that the name had been given to the place even at this early period. (Reference: Smith's Streets of London, pp. 18-19)