The name of one of the counties of East Anglia; used attrib. in designations of things produced in or peculiar to the county, as Suffolk butter, cheese, cow, dumpling, dun, pig; Suffolk bang (see quot.); Suffolk coprolite, a phosphatic nodule occurring in the Red Crag of Suffolk; Suffolk crag, a Pliocene formation occurring in Suffolk (see quot. 1852); Suffolk grass, the annual meadow grass, Poa annua; Suffolk punch, a small but strong and hardy horse bred largely in Suffolk; Suffolk thump = Suffolk bang.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Suffolk Bang, a very poor and hard kind of cheese.
1735. J. Kirby, Suffolk Trav., 2. In this Part is made the *Suffolk Butter, so managed by the Neat Dairy-Wife, that it is justly esteemed the pleasantest and best in England.
1636. Davenant, Wits, III. i. Some *Suffolk Cheese.
1661. Pepys, Diary, 4 Oct. I found my wife vexed at her people for grumbling to eat Suffolk cheese.
1797. Young, Agric. Suffolk, 203. Cheese 5d., but Suffolk 31/2 d. and 4 d.
1867. Sibson, Agric. Chem., 249. *Suffolk Coprolites are amongst the first known phosphatic minerals.
1797. T. M., in Young, Agric. Suffolk, 180, note. The true *Suffolk polled cow.
1834. [Youatt], Cattle (Lib. Usef. Knowl.), 175. The milking properties of the Suffolk cow.
1852. Lyell, Man. Elem. Geol. (ed. 4), 162. The *Suffolk crag is divisible into two masses, the upper of which has been termed the Red, and the lower the Coralline Crag.
1824. New Syst. Cookery (new ed.), 234. Yeast or *Suffolk Dumplings.
1834. [Youatt], Cattle (Lib. Usef. Knowl.), 174. The *Suffolk Dun used to be celebrated … on account of the extraordinary quantity of milk that she yielded.
1875. Encycl. Brit., I. 389/1. A polled breed of cattle, the prevailing colour of which is dun or pale red, from which they are known as the Suffolk Duns.
1759. B. Stillingfleet, Observ. Grasses, in Misc. Tracts (1762), 367. What is known in some few counties by the name of the *Suffolk grass.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 368. The Pòa ánnua, or Suffolk grass, is so short of growth … as to render it an encumberer of the soil.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 214/1. *Suffolk pigs are perhaps … the most profitable breed in England.
1784. Sir J. Cullum, Hist. Hawsted, 222. This breed is well known by the name of *Suffolk Punches.
1826. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 644. The Suffolk-punches, which are common in the district called High Suffolk.
1850. Dickens, Dav. Copp., xix. A Suffolk Punch, when he ’s a good ’un, is worth his weight in gold.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, s.v. Bang, *Suffolk Thump.
† b. Suffolk powder: see quot. Obs.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., Suffolk powder, the name of a medicinal powder, good for the bite of a mad dog. It had its name from a Countess of Suffolk, who used to give it with great success.
c. absol. = Suffolk cow, pig.
[1797. in Young, Agric. Suffolk, 185. The Suffolk milk gave two and one-third ounces more cream than the horned one.]
1834. [Youatt], Cattle (Lib. Usef. Knowl.), 175. In no part of the kingdom were the farmers more careless as to the breed, providing only that the cows were true Suffolks. Ibid. (1846), Pig, 66. A cross between the Suffolk and Lincoln.
Hence Suffolkian (in 7 -cean), a., of or belonging to the county of Suffolk; Suffolkism (-cism), a Suffolk idiom or peculiarity.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xix. 399. From the Suffolcean side yet those which Stour prefer Their princely Orwell praise.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, 23. Where words occur, not readily understood by the Unsuffolked reader, he is to take them as Suffolcisms.
