Ceʹlia [heavenliness]

Mother of Faith, Hope, and Charity. She lived in the hospice called Holiness. (Spenser Faërie Queene, bk. i. 10.)

Celia or Cœlia. A common poetical name for a lady or lady-love. Thus, Swift had an ode in which Strephon describes Cælia’s dressing-room.

“Five hours, and who can do it less in

By haughty Cælia spent in dressing.”

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.