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!
 T
Tables: backgammon
Tabling house: cooked food shop or a gambling den for playing tables
Tabor: a small drum, played with a stick
Taffaty, taffeta: fine silk or linen cloth (in the 16th century)
Take his leap: stallion mounting a mare
Tallow: cheap, smelly, smokey candlewax made of sheep fat
Tares: weeds
Target: shield
Tenterhooks: for attaching cloth to the stretcher (tenter), so it retains shape while drying
Term: period when London courts were in session
Tester: canopy over bed or headboard
Thrasonical: boastful, full of bombast in a soldierly manner
Thrum: waste thread, the loose end of a weaver’s warp – so, anything worthless and unwanted
Tib: goose, also a girl or lass (usually of lower classes)
Tiffany: thin transparent gauze or fine gauze muslin
Tilt-boat: large rowing boat, having an awning (tilt) – a river taxi
Tip: give
Tippler: seller of ale and beer
Tipstaff: sheriff’s officer, constable or bailiff
Tiring house: in a playhouse, the backstage area where dressing rooms are
Tom O’Bedlam: madman or ex-inmate of Bedlam
Tod: a bundle of wool weighing 28lbs
Togmans: cloak, coat
Topgallant: sail raised above the topsail
Tow: strands of flax, hemp or jute used in torches
Toy: 1) trifle or small object; 2) whim
Traffic: whore
Trencher: large, flat plate of wood
Trillibub: bag of guts, entrails
Trug: slut, whore
Trugging-house: brothel
Trull: a low prostitute
Trye: a sieve or screen for sifting
Tumbrel: two-wheeled cart
Turkey: material woven on a loom in imitation of a Turkish carpet – or a Turkey carpet itself
Turkey-stone: turquoise
Turnbull Street: notorious haunt of whores
Turnkey: jailer, gaoler
Twilly: Coarse linen covering for a bed
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