Del"la Crus"ca (?). A shortened form of Academia della Crusca, an academy in Florescence, Italy, founded in the 16th century, especially for conversing the purity of the Italian language.
⇒ The Accademia della Crusca (literally, academy of the bran or chaff) was so called in allusion to its chief object of bolting or purifying the national language.
© Webster 1913. | 
