A corruption of Milʹaner; so called from Milʹan, in Italy, which at one time gave the law to Europe in all matters of taste, dress, and elegance.
⁂ Milliner was originally applied to the male sex; hence Ben Jonson, in Every Man in his Humour, i. 3, speaks of a “milliner’s wife.” The French have still une modiste and un modiste.
· 
· 