An Elizabethan Lexicon
Language in the sixteenth century was rich,
poetic – and coarse. Here are some of the words I have gleaned in many years of reading histories and plays of the
period. Some still in use, many sadly long gone.
I apologise for the extraordinary number of derogatory
words there were for women, especially when men do not suffer the same
treatment. But you’ll have to blame our sexist ancestors for that!
 B
Bachelor: livery company member, not as senior as a liveryman
Backed: dead
Ballock: testicle
Banbury: notorious Puritanism centre; a Banury Man is a Puritan
Ban-dog: ferocious dogs kept tied-up
Bark: a small ship with standard rigging and build
Barnacle: Member of a gang of con artists, who arrives on the scene ‘by chance’, when game is in progress
Bastardly gullion: a bastard’s bastard
Baudekin: brocade of gold thread and silk (the richest cloth)
Bawdy basket: itinerant female pedlar, whore
Beak: magistrate
Beast: anti-Christ (Puritan view of Pope and Roman Catholic priests)
Bees, a head full of: full of crazy notions
Beetle: heavy wooden-headed mallet for driving wedges
Bellman: watchman, town crier
Belly-cheat: slang term for an apron
Beray: befoul
Bess o’Bedlam: madwoman
Bitchery: whoredom
Black Book: prison register
Blackjack: leather beer jug sealed with tar on outside
Bluecoats: serving men
Boatswain (bosun): officer responsible for sails and rigging and mustering of men.
Bodies (a pair of): bodice
Bodkin: small dagger
Book-holder: theatre prompter
Boozing ken: alehouse
Brabble: quarrel, wrangle, noisy altercation
Broadcloth: fine, wide, black plaincloth (as a puritan might wear)
Breech-clout: cloth worn by American Indians about their waist
Bridale: wedding feast
Brownist: member of Puritan separatist sect, followers of Robert Brown, some of whom were executed in the 1590s
Bruit: to spread by rumour
Buckler: a small, round shield
Buttery: larder, service room for ale and general food stores
Buttriss: a hoof-paring tool
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