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!
 C
Cable: thick rope attached to anchor
Cade: barrel, cask
Caliver: light musket fired without a rest
Callet: whore or lewd woman
Canary: light, sweet wine from the Canary Islands
Careen: turn a ship on its side to scrape its hull of weed and barnacles, and caulk
Carrack: large merchant ship which could be converted to be a warship. Three-master, square-rigged with high castles, fore and stern
Caravel: lighter version of a carrack, a Portuguese trading vessel, converted into three-masted ship for ocean-going
Caul: net or close-fitted covering for a woman’s head
Catchpole: arresting officer, a sheriff’s sergeant
Chapman: pedlar or dealer
Chats: slang for gallows
Cheap: to bargain or barter
Cheapside: where the mercers and haberdashers had their shops
Cheat: thing (slang)
Cheese cratch: a rack for storing cheeses
Chopper: dealer, someone who buys and sells (especially church benefices)
Churl: ill-bred, surly, base fellow; farm worker
Cittern: metal-stringed instrument similar to lute, played with plectrum or quill
Clap, The: gonorrhoea
Clapperdudgeon: a vagrant
Cloy, cly: steal or take
Cly the jerk: be whipped (slang)
Cockboat: small ship’s boat
Coffer: a box or chest for storage
Coffin: large chest; pie
Cog, cogging: to cheat, cheating
Coif: a lawn or silk cap
Coining: forging money
Cokes: simpleton or fool
Cold: free of venereal disease, hence cold whore or hot whore
Committer: a man who uses whores, a fornicator
Complot: plot or conspiracy
Conceit: bright idea, wit, ingenious notion
Coney, cony: a dupe
Cony-catching: trickery
Constable: local law enforcer
Copesmate: comrade
Corbelled house: a building with projections
Cordwainer: a worker in cordovan (Spanish goatskin), a shoemaker
Cosset: a spoilt child (literally a hand-reared lamb)
Costard-monger (costermonger): apple seller
Coter: author, person responsible for a work
Cotton: a cheap wool fibre used for candlewicks
Couch a hogshead: lie down to sleep
Counterfeit crank: crook pretending to have epilepsy to gain alms
Cousin, cozen, cozenage, cozener: to dupe or cheat
Cramp rings: shackles, fetters
Crashing cheats: teeth
Cresset: iron basket (usually on top of a pole) in which pitch or oil is burned for light
Crossbiter, crossbiting: swindler, swindling
Cross or pile: heads or tails
Crown: coin worth 5s (25p)
Culverin: long-range cannon with bore of about five inches, firing shot of 17-20lbs
Cunning man: a sort of local detective. Someone possessing keen intelligence or magical knowledge
Curbing: stealing clothes through open windows with a hook (curb)
Cursitor: a tramp
Customer: customs official
Cuttle: knife
Cuttle-bung: knife used for cutting purses
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