Lombard noun1 & adjective.
['lɒmbǝd, -bɑ:d] ME.[Middle Dutch, Middle Low German lombaerd or French lombard from Italian lombardo (medieval Latin lombardus) repr. late Latin Langobardus, Longo-, Latin langobardi (Tacitus) from Germanic, from base of LONG adjective1 + ethnic name Bardi. Cf. LANGOBARD, LONGOBARD. See also LUMBER noun2.]A. noun.
1. Hist. A member of a Germanic people from the lower Elbe who invaded Italy in the 6th cent. and founded a kingdom named Lombardy after them.
ME.2. A native or inhabitant of the region of Lombardy in north central Italy. Formerly
spec., one engaged in banking, money-changing, or pawnbroking; hence any banker, money-changer, or pawnbroker.
LME.3. The Italian dialect of modern Lombardy.
L16.4. A bank, a money-changer's or moneylender's office; a pawnshop. Cf.
LUMBER noun2.
E17-L18.b. adjective. Of or pertaining to the Lombards or Lombardy; Lombardic.
ME.
Special collocations & comb.:
Lombard band Architecture a shallow pilaster dividing a wall into bays.
Lombard Street [a street in London, orig. occupied by Lombard bankers and still containing many of the principal London banks] the money market, financiers as a body;
Lombard Street to a China orange, great wealth against one ordinary object, virtual certainty.
■ Lom'bardian adjective =
LOMBARDIC adjective M19. ■ Lombardism noun a Lombardic idiom
E19. ■ Lom'bardo- combining form.
[after Italian Lombardo-Veneto] Lombardic and
: L19. [TahlilGaran] English Dictionary ▲