
ETYMOLOGY
from Italian leggiadro (elegant, graceful) + -ous
EXAMPLE
“…Her Motions and her Gestures travers’d are
By thy attending thoughts, and ravish’d thou
Think’st silver Venus through her limpid sphere
Swims with less gagliardise, and knows not how
So well to justify her Stile, and prove
Her self the Queen of soft leggiadrous Love…”
From: Psyche, or, Loves Mysterie
By Joseph Beaumont, 1648