Definition of GALLEY-WEST

History and Etymology for galley-west

variant of English dialect (Cheshire, Lancashire) colley-west, collywesson "contrary, in the opposite direction, askew," of uncertain origin

Note: The dialect word colley-west, etc., is not attested before the 19th century, but a single instance of Collie weston ward occurs in William Harrisonʼs Description of England, printed in 1587 as part of Holinshedʼs Chronicles: " … the mandilion worne to Collie weston ward." (The mandilion was a sort of pullover jacket, open on the sides, worn by men; a portrait of Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, survives in which a mandilion is worn "Collie weston ward," rotated a quarter turn so that the sleeves hang down the front and back.) "Collie weston" is presumably the village of Collyweston in Northamptonshire, though the allusion is obscure.

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