Also 9–8 belvidere. [a. It. belvedere ‘a faire sight, a place of a faire prospect,’ f. bel, bello, beautiful + vedere (inf. mood used subst.) a view, sight. The It. word was adopted in Fr. as early as 16th c. as belveder, belvédère, whence perhaps the Eng. pronunciation.]
1. Arch. A raised turret or lantern on the top of a house, or a summer-house erected on an eminence in a garden or pleasure-ground, for the purpose of viewing the surrounding scene.
1596. Bell, Surv. Popery, III. ii. 213. Walking in his garden, or looking about him in his Bel-videre.
1623. Webster, Devil’s Law Case, I. i. They build their palaces and belvederes With musical water-works.
1755. Hervey, Dial., in Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk., Ser. I. (1850), I. 314. Over this recess, so pleasingly horrid … arose an open and airy belvidere.
1834. Penny Cycl., II. 165/1. Apollo Belvedere, a celebrated statue of Apollo … placed by him [Pope Julius II.] in the Belvidere of the Vatican, whence it derives its present name.
1873. Browning, Red Cott. Nt.-cap, 148. What means this Belvedere? This Tower, stuck like a fool’s-cap on the roof?
2. Hort. A plant, Kochia scoparia (N.O. Chenopodiaceæ), cultivated as an ornamental garden plant. Also called Summer Cypress, and Broom Toad-flax.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, III. clxv. (1633), 556. This Belvidere, or Scoparia is the Osyris described by Dioscorides.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., Belvedere.
1797. C. Marshall, Garden. (1805), 326. Belvidere, annual, summer or mock cypress.
