Messinesen.adj.

1586 W. Shales & J. Sanderson Let. 30 Dec. in W. Foster Trav. J. Sanderson (1931) 139 For, upon the death of a Mesinese under his counseillidg, the Bassa made him to bring forth all his as the goods of a carragiaro of the King.

1689 Mercurius Reformatus I. No. 30 Monsieur de Fuelade having..arrived at Messina.., and being received by the Messinesses with all possible Kindness.

1797 Encycl. Brit. XI. 417/1 The Messinese were particularly tardy in entering into the national conspiracy of 1282, but afterwards exceeded the rest of the insurgents in deeds of cruelty.

1848 Littell's Living Age 18 Nov. 306 Stories have come..that the Messinese went back to massacre the Neapolitans.

1873 Harper's Mag. July 198 So familiar have earthquakes become to the Messinese that when one of them is absent, and pining for return, a sound shaking restores his spirits.

1918 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 48 90 Many series of Sicilian skulls have been measured. The most homogenous is that of Mondio, made up of modern Messinese.

1968 D. M. Smith Hist. Sicily II. xl. 376 The Abbé Guerra, himself a Messinese, thought that the various classes were bent upon destroying each other's prosperity.

1821 Kaleidoscope 26 June 410/1 In Messina, a humorous frolic took place, in some Messinese wits personating her Majesty and suite.

1858 U.S. Democratic Rev. Sept. 218 He had reckoned a single Messinese head at three thousand florins.

1958 S. Runciman Sicilian Vespers xiii. 219 The Messinese ships still hovering off the port were ordered home.

1987 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 26 Apr. x. 15/1 Pippo Nunari..on the corner of Via Ugo Bassi and Via Pellegrino..is a well-established restaurant that serves such typical Messinese dishes as pesce spada.