[Use of the place-name Leghorn, ad. It. Legorno (16–17th c.), now replaced by Livorno, repr. the classical L. name Liburnus.]
1. The name of a straw plaiting for hats and bonnets, made from a particular kind of wheat, cut green and bleached, and so called because imported from Leghorn in Tuscany; a hat or bonnet made of this plaiting or some imitation of it. (Used both simply and in attrib. use, as Leghorn bonnet, chip, hat, plait.)
1804. European Mag., XLV. 412/2. Hats of a foreign manufacture, imported from Italy, and therefore denominated Leghorn Chip.
1805. Trans. Soc. Arts, XXIII. 223. The Gold Medal of the Society was this session voted to Mr. William Corston, of Ludgate-Hill, for a substitute, of his invention, for Leghorn Plait, for Hats, &c. Ibid., 231. A specimen of plaited straw, manufactured … in this country, similar to that imported from various parts of Europe, under the denomination of Leghorn.
1818. Lady Morgan, Autobiog. (1859), 64. I bought myself a chapeau de soleil, with corn flowers stuck in the side of it—a regular Leghorn.
1823. Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1825), I. 6. She … split the young lady’s Leghorn by one thump of her fist.
1893. Peel, Spen Valley, 271. The great leghorn bonnets which they prized so highly.
2. The name of a breed of the domestic fowl.
1869. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric., 485. 15 hens, mostly Leghorns and Black Hamburgs. Ibid. Mixture of Leghorn and native breed.
1874. L. Wright, Illustr. Bk. Poultry, 423. While most Spanish breeds are delicate, the Leghorns are extraordinarily hardy, besides being much superior as layers. Ibid., 425. The white Leghorn cock.
