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!
 D
Dabnets: household cooking utensils
Darkmans: night
Daub: mud for building
Dell: a young vagrant girl, a wench
Destrier: war horse, charger, jousting horse
Device: clever design
Doddypoll: fool
Dogswain: sort of makeshift covers or bedding
Dornix: a coarse sort of Damask for carpets and curtains, first made in Tournai (Dornick in Flemish)
Doublet: a close fitting jacket, with or without sleeves
Downey, to do the downey: a feather bed, to go to bed
Dove: darling
Doxy: loose woman, a vagrant’s wench
Drab: low, sluttish woman, a whore
Draught of indenture: drink taken on signing an agreement
Drinkpenny: tip, gratuity
Drolleries: comic entertainment of a fantastical kind
Ducat: Spanish gold coin, eighth of an ounce. Silver ducat worth 5s 6d; gold ducat 7s
Duds: clothes, coarse cloaks
Dummerer: a beggar pretending to be dumb
Dung fork: just what it says
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