Menage, in his Origini della Lingua Italiana, under the word Bizoco, writes:
"Persono secolare vestita di abito di religione. Quasi 'bigioco' perche ordinariamente gli Ipocriti, e coloro che si fanno dell' ordine di S. Francesco si vestono di bigio."
And Sansovino on the Decameron says that—
"Bizocco sia quasi Bigioco, o Bigiotto, perchè i Terziari di S. Francesco si veston di bigio."
Abundance of instances might be adduced of the use of the term bizocco in the sense of hypocrite, or would-be saint. And the passage which Mr. Trench gives after Richardson from Bishop Hall, where bigot is used to signify a pervert to Romanism, "he was turned both bigot and physician," seems to me to favour my etymology rather than that from the Spanish; as showing that the earliest known use of the term was its application to a Popish religionist. The "pervert" alluded to had become that which cotemporary Italians were calling a bigiotto. Must we not conclude that Bishop Hall drew his newly-coined word thence?
T. A. T.
Florence.