Rory Clements - Revenger

Language in the sixteenth century was rich, poetic-and coarse. Here are a few of the many words I have gleaned over the years. (For a fuller lexicon, visit www.roryclements.com.)

alderliefest:most dear

all amort:dejected, miserable

apple squire:pimp, a harlot’s servant

argosy:large merchant ship

arquebus, arquebusier, hagbut, hackbut:matchlock weapon, muzzle-loading. The trigger brings the end of a slow-burning match into contact with the gunpowder that discharges the ball.

arras:tapestry or hanging of rich fabric with woven figures and scenes

attaint:to stain, disgrace, condemn; lose standing and property

auto-da-fé:execution of sentence of the Spanish Inquisition, often including a parade and sometimes including burnings of heretics

backed:dead

ban-dog:ferocious dog kept tied up

bark:small ship with standard rigging and build

bastardly gullion:bastard’s bastard

baudekin:brocade of gold thread and silk (the richest cloth)

beast:Antichrist (Puritan view of Pope and Roman Catholic priests)

bees, a head full of:full of crazy notions

bellman:watchman, town crier

belly-cheat:slang term for an apron

Bess o’Bedlam:madwoman

black book:prison register

blackjack:leather beer jug sealed with tar on the outside

bluecoat:serving-man

bodies (a pair of):bodice

brabble:quarrel, wrangle, noisy altercation

breechclout:cloth worn by American Indians about their waist

bridale:wedding feast

broadcloth:fine, wide, black plaincloth (such as a Puritan might wear)

bruit:to spread by rumor

buckler:small round shield

buttery:larder, service room for ale and general food stores

caliver:light musket fired without a rest

callet:whore or lewd woman

canary:light, sweet wine from the Canary Islands

careen:to turn a ship on its side to scrape its hull of weed and barnacles, and caulk

carrack:large merchant ship that could be converted into a warship. Three-master, square-rigged with high castles, fore and stern.

catchpole:arresting officer, a sheriff’s sergeant

churl:ill-bred, surly, base fellow; farmworker

coif:a lawn or silk cap

coining:forging money

coney, cony:a dupe

copesmate:comrade

coter:author, person responsible for a work

couch a hogshead:to lie down to sleep

cousin, cozen, cozenage, cozener:to dupe or cheat

cresset:iron basket (usually on top of a pole) in which pitch or oil is burned for light

crossbiter, crossbiting:swindler, swindling

culverin:long-range cannon with bore of about five inches, firing shot of seventeen to twenty pounds

cunning man:a sort of local detective; someone possessing keen intelligence or magical knowledge

daub:mud for building

dell:young vagrant girl, a wench

doddypoll:fool

dogswain:sort of makeshift covers or bedding

doublet:close-fitting jacket, with or without sleeves

doxy:loose woman, a vagrant’s wench

drab:low, sluttish woman, a whore

drink-penny:tip, gratuity

drolleries:comic entertainment of a fantastical kind

ducat:Spanish gold coin, eighth of an ounce. A silver ducat was worth five shillings six pence; a gold ducat, seven shillings.

electuary:medicine, a medicinal conserve or paste mixed with honey or syrup

Essex’s cheap knights:those he knighted after failed sorties such as Azores

factor:collecting agent

fain:to be inclined, compelled

fairy, faerie:spirit, often evil

fall in:to copulate

figure caster:astrologer

Flota:Spanish treasure fleet from the New World

flowers:menstruation, period

foreign officer:parish official charged with seeking out vagrants

foreparts:stomachers, ornamental clothing for women

frantic:insane

freebooter:plunderer

French hood:fashionable hood for women

French marbles, pox, crown, welcome:venereal disease

frenzy:madness

gage of booze:quart of ale

gamekeeper:keeper of whores

garnish:bribe, especially in prison

gentry cove:upper-class man

gentry mort:upper-class woman

gibbet:gallows, especially one where the dead criminal was left to rot

glaziers:eyes

gong:a privy or its contents

gong farmers, night-soil men:sewage collectors

gossip:friend, especially female, perhaps godparent

greased priest:Catholic priest (anointed with oil)

groat:coin worth four pence

guarded:trimmed with lace or braid, as in “guarded coat”

hair o’ the same wolf:hair of the dog-a hangover cure

halberd, halberdier:long-staffed weapon with a point, axe on one side and billhook on the other

halek: astrologer and physician Simon Forman’s secret word for copulation

hand-fasting:betrothal, solemnizing of wedding vows

headborough:parish officer, petty constable

headsman:executioner (with axe)

hedge-priest:itinerant preacher

hewing and punching:slashing the neck followed by a stab in the belly

hogshead:large cask containing 52.5 gallons

hole:worst prison cell

hornbook:board with letters or prayers with thin, transparent horn covering

hospitaller:man in charge of admissions and discharges from hospital and of seeing that funds and supplies were accounted for and that valuables brought in by patients were safeguarded

instrument:male member

intelligencer:spy

intrigant:one who intrigues

jakes, jaques, house of easement:privy, toilet

jerkin:close-fitting jacket, often leather

jet:to strut about, swagger

jetty:protruding story of house

ken:house, especially one where villains lodge or meet

kennel:surface street gutter

kern:Irish warrior, foot soldier, one of the poorer class of the Irish

kersey:worsted cloth, coarse and narrow, woven from long wool and usually ribbed