Glossary
- Advowtry
-
Adultery.
- Animalia
-
Animals.
- Arsie-versie
-
Upside-down.
- Aruspicy
-
Prophesying, fortune-telling.
- Bachrach
-
Wine from Bacharach, in Germany.
- Bavin
-
A bundle of firewood.
- Boutefeu
-
Arsonist or (literal or metaphorical) firebrand.
- Cacodaemon
-
An evil Spirit.
- Caldes’d
-
Cheated.
- Calendae
-
The 1st or 2nd of the month.
- Calleche
-
A carriage with two wheels and a folding hood.
- Camelion
-
A giraffe.
- Camisado
-
An attack by night, during which the attackers wore shirts over their armour so they could recognise one another.
- Cane et angue pejus
-
Worse than a dog or a snake.
- Caperdewsie
-
The stocks.
- Capoch’d
-
Pulled off the hoods.
- Caprich
-
A caprice.
- Carbonading
-
Thrashing, beating.
- Carroch
-
A stately or luxurious carriage.
- Catasta
-
The stocks.
- Cawdle
-
Soup or gruel.
- Ceruse
-
White lead used as a cosmetic.
- Champaign
-
Champagne wine.
- Chous’d, choust, chows’d
-
Cheated.
- Chouse
-
A cheat’s victim.
- Classis
-
The elders and pastors of all the Presbyterian congregations in a district.
- Coincidere
-
To come together.
- Congees
-
Bows, curtseys.
- Conster
-
Construe, explain.
- Conventicle
-
Secret or illegal religious meetings.
- Covins
-
Conspiracies.
- Cucking-stool
-
A stool to which a malefactor (often an unfaithful wife) was tied, to be exposed to public ridicule, or ducked in a pond or river.
- Curship
-
The title of being a cur—pun on “worship.”
- Curule
-
An ivory chair used as a mayor’s throne.
- Deletory
-
That which wipes out or destroys.
- Deodand
-
In English law an article which had caused a man’s death was ordered by the court to be a forfeited as a deodand (Ad Deodandum—to be given to God). Before the reformation it or its value was given to the Church; afterwards to the local landowner.
- Dewtry
-
A stupefying drink made from the Indian thorn-apple fruit.
- Dialectico
-
A philosophical point of argument.
- Dictum factum
-
No sooner said than done.
- Disparo
-
To separate.
- Donzel
-
A young page or squire.
- Drazel
-
A slut.
- Ducatoon
-
An Italian silver coin, worth about 6 shillings.
- Ejusdem generis
-
Of the same kind.
- Enucleate
-
To explain the meaning of.
- Ex parte
-
On behalf of.
- Exaunt
-
A religious establishment not under the authority of the local bishop.
- Fadging
-
Fitting.
- Feme-covert
-
A woman under the protection of a husband (a legal term)
- Ferk
-
Beat, whip.
- Festina lente
-
Make haste slowly.
- Fingle-fangle
-
A whimsical or fantastic idea.
- Fother
-
A cartload.
- Fulhams
-
Loaded dice.
- Ganzas
-
The birds which the hero of a popular romance harnessed to take him to the moon.
- Genethliack
-
A caster of horoscopes.
- Geomancy
-
Divination by interpreting the patterns of lines drawn at random on the ground or on paper.
- Gleave
-
A spear or halberd.
- Granado
-
A grenade.
- Grilly’d
-
Grilled.
- Grincam
-
Syphilis.
- Guep
-
Go on!—said to a horse or as an expression of derision.
- Habergeon
-
A chain-mail shirt.
- Haut-gouts
-
Tasty things.
- Headborough
-
A constable.
- Hiccius Doctius
-
A nonsense word used by jugglers, conjurers etc., hence, any kind of trick or dishonest dealing.
- Hight
-
Called, named.
- Hoccamore
-
Wine from Hochheim, in Germany.
- Horary
-
Hourly.
- Huckle
-
The hip.
- Huguenots
-
French Calvinists.
- Hypocondries
-
The upper abdomen, between the breastbone and the navel.
- Id est
-
That is.
- Idem
-
The same.
- Illation
-
Inference, deduction.
- In eodem subjecto
-
Thrown together in the same place.
- In querpo
-
Naked.
- Jobbernol(e)
-
A thick head or blockhead.
- Jure divino
-
By God’s law.
- Langued
-
Heraldic term meaning, with a tongue of a particular colour e.g. langued gules—with a red tongue.
- Lathy
-
Thin, like a lath.
- Linsey-woolsey
-
A cloth of mixed wool and linen threads.
- Linstock
-
A stick for holding a gunner’s match.
- L’Ombre
-
A card game.
- Longees
-
Lunges.
- Lustrations
-
Ceremonials of ritual purification by washing.
- Mainprize
-
To stand surety for someone.
- Manicon
-
A plant (deadly nightshade) or its extract, believed to cause insanity when taken.
- Mantua
-
A kind of woman’s loose gown.
- Martlet
-
A swallow or martin.
- Mazzard
-
The head.
- Measle
-
A spot or pustule.
- Mira de lente
-
Wonderfully slow.
- Mordicus
-
With the teeth.
- Morpion
-
A crab-louse.
- Mundungus
-
Bad tobacco.
- Nare olfact
-
Nostril.
- Neat (noun)
-
A calf or cow.
- Negatur
-
It is denied.
- Nimmer
-
A petty thief.
- Omnibus nervis
-
With every sinew.
- Oppugn
-
Attack or fight against.
- Orcades
-
The Orkneys.
- pacquet-male
-
Large wallet.
- Padder
-
A thief.
- Pari Libra
-
Equally.
- Pathic
-
Passively homosexual.
- Pernicion
-
Total ruin.
- Petronel
-
A short carbine or large pistol.
- Picqueer
-
Skirmish or quarrel.
- Pigsney
-
A term of endearment for a woman, “darling.”
- Plus satis
-
More than enough.
- Poesie
-
Poetry.
- Pullen
-
Poultry.
- Punese
-
A bedbug.
- Pursy
-
Rich.
- Quarteridge
-
A tax or payment due quarterly.
- Quatenus
-
So far as (it is)
- Quillets
-
Verbal points or quibbles.
- Rampiers
-
Ramparts.
- Rationalia
-
Thinking creatures.
- Rochet
-
A bishop’s white gown or surplice.
- Satis
-
Enough.
- Sault
-
Jump.
- Scire facias
-
To know the appearance of.
- Sedes Stercoraria
-
Filthier seat.
- Seisin
-
A token of ownership, formally handed over when property is sold.
- Shanker
-
A venereal sore, chancre.
- Slubberdegullion
-
A dirty, slovenly person.
- Soland geese
-
Barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis)
- Staffier
-
A footman.
- Stentrophonic
-
Loud, as from a megaphone.
- Stum
-
A mixture of wine and grape juice.
- Suggill’d
-
Beaten severely.
- Sui juris
-
Independently.
- Swound
-
A swoon.
- Synodical
-
Arising from or of the nature of a synod—a meeting of bishops etc. of the Anglican Church.
- Tantundem dat tantidem
-
So much of that gives so much of this = they are exactly the same.
- Tarsel
-
A male falcon.
- Theorbo
-
A kind of lute with two necks.
- Totidem verbis
-
In just as many words.
- Trapes
-
Tripes.
- Trepan
-
To trap.
- Trigon
-
A set of 3 signs of the Zodiac at 120-degree angles to each other.
- Tussis pro crepitu
-
A cough for a fart.
- Velis & remis
-
By sail and oar.
- Veni, Vidi, Vici
-
I came, I saw, I conquered.
- Versal
-
Universal.
- Videlicet
-
That is, viz.
- Vitilitigation
-
Argument, quarrelling.
- Vizard
-
A mask or disguise.
- Welkin
-
The sky.
- Whiffler
-
A ceremonial guard who cleared the way for a mayor or other official.
- Whinyard
-
A short sword.
- Ycleped
-
Named.
- Yerst
-
Erst, formerly.