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imˈpresa
Forms: 6–7 impresa, -so, 7 impreza, -prezza.
[a. It. impresa (imˈpreza), undertaking, attempt, device, etc.:—late L. *imprensa: see emprise, and cf. empress n.2, imprese, impress n.3, impressa1.]
1. An emblem or device, usually accompanied by an appropriate motto (cf. quot. a 1649).
1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 45 There was banding of such lookes, as euerie one imported as much as an impreso. 1598Yong Diana 392 Making verses, impresas, and Anagrammes of her loue and name. 1602Marston Ant. & Mel. v. Wks. 1856 I. 55, I did send for you to drawe me a devise, an Imprezza, by Sinecdoche a Mott. 1637Heywood Lond. Mirr. Wks. 1874 IV. 315 Every one of them expressing their natures and conditons in the impresaes of their shields. a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Disc. Impresas Wks. (1711) 228 Though emblems and impresa's sometimes seem like other,..the words of the emblem are only placed to declare the figures of the emblem; whereas, in an impresa, the figures express and illustrate the one part of the author's intention, and the word the other. 1653Urquhart Rabelais i. ix, The device or impresa of my Lord-Admiral. 1865F. B. Palliser Hist. Lace 435 Then follow three pages in terzette, and p. 3. dorso, the impresa of the printer, a lion rampant, holding a sword in his fore paws. 1971English Studies LII. 122 The last impresa in the supplementary chapter is almost certainly a personal device of Daniel's dedicatee, Sir Edward Dymoke.
†2. The sentence accompanying an emblem; hence, a motto, maxim, proverb. Obs.
1622Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 230 The Impresa, Sceptra fouent Artes, may better be attributed to common⁓weales or popular gouernments, than vnto Monarchies or Kingdomes. 1630R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlem. (1641) 78 The Comicke Impreza: If wise, seeme not to know that which thou knowest. 1641R. Brooke Eng. Episc. i. iii. 5 For a Motto, and impreso, the Poets words,—Et quæ non fecimus ipsi [etc.]. |