Glossary of 18th Century Vernacular

Aboon above

Acme the highest point of achievement (Latin)

Ahint behind 

Ain own 

Ain't, An't alternative contractions for are not, which had not yet standardized to aren't

Allemande a lively contra dance step in 3/4 time, where couples hold hands and turn around one another.  Contra dances, also called "country dances," were the prevailing 18th century dance form, where men and women danced together with couples in long rows or columns facing one another.  There are few things on this Earth more fun than the Virginia Reel when you have enough couples and everyone knows what they are doing.

Allus dialect for always

An if  

Ance once 

Ane one (The English one was originally pronounced "oon," which explains its current spelling.  The Scottish "ane" is a regional variation of the original pronunciation.  Twa retains its original pronunciation as well, unlike the English two.) 

Arguy dialect for argue

Auld old 

Ay yes

Aye always 

Applejack a brandy distilled from hard cider, apple cider that has been allowed to ferment and become alcoholic.  Alternatively, a barrel of hard cider could simply be allowed to freeze sequentially and the frozen water be removed each time, thereby concentrating the alcohol content; however, this method left the final product so full of congeners and other impurities that it was sure to cause apple palsy in its consumers.

Apple palsy a significant hangover (especially from consuming cheaply-made applejack); also, probably, a severe neurological disorder such as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (profound thiamin deficiency) stemming from chronic alcoholism.

Back-holds hurdles.  The hurdles that runners jump in the track-and-field event began existence as free-standing and self-supporting sections of fence that could be arranged in a ring to enclose sheep and be moved at the farmer's convenience.  

Bairn an infant, a child.  A word carried to Scotland by the Vikings.

Balls musket shot cast from lead; also, testicles (from ballocks).

Bastaard bastard (Dutch)

Baumwollsuppe "cotton soup" (German), a soup of chicken broth and eggs beaten with a little flour, very similar to Chinese egg-drop soup.  German being an agglomerative language, the word for cotton is, literally, "tree wool."

Bawd a person of loose morals, a prostitute.

Bedstead the wooden frame that supports a mattress, consisting of a headboard, a footboard, and two rails to connect them.  Old bedsteads had a webbing of rope strung underneath the mattress to support it, hence the old rhyme, "Goodnight, sleep tight . . . "

Beldam an elderly woman

Be near be frugal

B'il dialect for boil, pronounced "bile."

Black affrontit deeply ashamed 

Black vomit blood turned black in appearance by its contact with stomach acid, a cardinal sign of the hemorrhagic viral illness, yellow fever.  Medical literature speaks of "all the horrors of black vomit," which could be quite voluminous.  In the 18th century, no one knew that black vomit was in fact blood that was hemorrhaging into the gastrointestinal system.  (See also yellow fever.)

Blain a blister; chillblains are blisters on exposed skin that has frozen, the damage of mild frostbite.  

Blank a paper cartridge containing only a powder charge; also called a squib

Blether to talk inanely or chatter foolishly (Scots); also appears among other English speakers according to regional variation as blither and blather.  Vernacular is always quite particular, however: in America, the boring among us blather on and on; yet an annoying fool might be dismissed as a blithering idiot but never a blathering one.

Blutwurst blood sausage (German); also called black pudding in English

Body a person 

Bolt to run away; said of nervous horses and unhappy spouses.

Bonny good, handsome, pretty 

Boon companion an intimate friend

Bouet a lantern 

Bounty a fee or reward of money given to a person upon enlistment.  Men who enlisted in the Continental Army early in the war may not have received a bounty but were promised regular wages, which very shortly ceased from the government's lack of funds.  Later enlistees received a bounty upon enlistment, with no hope of wages until sometime after the war's end, when wage accounts should finally be settled by Congress.  

Boxing lick a strike of an ax blade that an experienced woodchopper gives a piece of wood that generates some torque, or twisting force, thereby causing the wood to split apart.

Brake an area of dense brush and undergrowth; also, a machine that when operated performs a rote task over and over, such as putting a regular crimp in sheet metal, or crushing flax stems.

Braw handsome, either in appearance or performance

Brawn muscle; also, meat

Breach a hole or opening, especially one that is made by force and a tool, such as "breaching" a keg; "storming the breach" is a military attack on an opening in an enemy's defenses, as in Henry V's Saint Crispin's Day speech: "Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more;/Or close the wall up with our English dead."

Breech the back lower portion of the body, the buttocks or bottom, the backside; Benjamin Gannett makes a pun ill-received by Deborah on breach and breech.  To be breeched: little boys wore a version of petticoats until the age of seven, when they were proud finally to be breeched, to graduate to wearing manly breeches.

Breeks breeches (Scots): a trouser-like garment that only reaches just below the knee and which buckles or buttons at its lower hem; also called smallclothes.

Brig a two-masted, square-rigged sailing ship

Britches breeches (see breeks)

Brook to put up with

Brose broth or soup 

Brosie an adjective applied pejoratively to someone who consumes a lot of alcohol

By-blow a child born out of wedlock, a bastard child

Caa canny proceed carefully

Calumny slanderous statements, malicious false remarks

Canna cannot

Canny shrewd, clever

Caper to dance, or, to leap about playfully

Carding to comb out wool between two "carding combs" set with little wire teeth, to clean it and align the fibers prior to spinning it into yarn or thread.

Carlin a wicked old woman, a shrewish crone

Carnify make into solid flesh

Carpin, carping complaining

Cast fated, determined by fate

Catarrh inflamed nose and throat with increased mucus production; usually, a cold

Catkin a flower bud on a willow tree that opens before the leaves appear

Cerecloth cloth impregnated with beeswax, a waterproof material used for many purposes

Chamberpot a large pot used for urination and defecation in the era before indoor plumbing.  Ideally it comes with a lid.

Chiel child, young person, young man

Chinking to fill up the gaps between horizontal logs in a log cabin with turves of grass or mud mixed with straw, both for insulation and to cut down on actual drafts of cold air

Chores household or farm tasks, often required to be done daily

Cipherers children learning arithmetic

Claiverer a chatterer, a talker

Clever intelligent, smart, well, accomplished

Clyster an enema

Coasting taking short voyages up and down a coastline

Coatee a tailed uniform coat

Coddlings fresh, tender, new green peas, as opposed to mature, starchy, tough ones.

Cogg-wame a big belly (offensive)

Coleworts kale, a dark, leafy green vegetable in the cabbage family

Conceit an idea

Congress In 18th century American usage, Congress was treated as a plural noun; hence, "Congress wish that a complete investigation be carried out."

Corpus a corpse, a dead body; from the Latin, and also 18th century idiomatic usage 

Cosset to indulge someone or give them attentive care

Courtesy a curtsy, a woman's bow

Courting the 18th century version of dating, either trying to gain someone's affection through pursuit of her company, or, having succeeded in the first aim, spending time together romantically before a marriage.

Crack chat or talk (Scots), both a noun and a verb; still current in American usage in that we crack jokes, make wisecracks, feel hurt if someone makes a crack about our personal appearance, and complain when something is "not all it's cracked up to be."

Crambo a rhyme (used contemptuously, and derived from a venerable rhyming game where one builds upon the rhyme); from crambe repitita (Latin), the repulsive "cabbage served over."  Apparently before refrigeration most of the world suffered from cabbage leftovers.  In England, old news was dismissed as "Coleworts twice sodden"; in Scotland (where gardens full of kale were so ubiquitous, ane's ain kaleyard was a synonym for home), it was, "Cauld kale het agin" (cold kale reheated).  In other words, "cabbage served over" in at least three languages, and we may not speak for the Chinese.

Cranky originally, in Scots, dangerous; in American usage it has come to mean "ill-tempered or irritable."

Critturs creatures

Crochety irritable, difficult, and probably suffering from the rheumaticks (which see); said of disagreeable older people

Crowdy-mowdy a silly endearment.  Crowdy is a dish of uncooked oatmeal mixed with water.

Cry, to be cried to have the banns read, meaning, to declare a forthcoming marriage by an announcement made during a church service on three successive Sundays; such an announcement allows the community opportunity to express any objection to the match.

Cussedness ornery (which see); being difficult for the pleasure of it; from cursedness.

Dab hand an expert at something, a master, someone who is adept at a particular task

Daft insane, crazy

Dagter common 18th century spelling for daughter, probably reflecting its regional pronunciation

Dampfnudeln steamed dumplings (German)

Damme an oath, "damn me"

Dancin mad furious (see mad)

Dancing on air being hanged by the neck until dead; an execution.

Deacon in the Congregational Church, a layperson elected to assist the minister; a position of some honor.

Dear (as in, "Dear help us") a euphemism to avoid blasphemously speaking the name of God

Debride the removal of dead tissue, a surgeon's office

Deid died, dead

Deid-claes a burial shroud, "dead clothes"; also called a winding sheet

Demember dialect for dismember

Deuce a common 18th century euphemism in an oath to avoid saying devil

Discommode inconvenience 

Dissemble to lie about, to disguise

Doggerel common, ill-written poetry and songs

Dominie a clergyman, the minister of a church

Drawkit saturated, soaked with water

Dree'd suffered

Draucht a draft, a plan (Scots); similar to the English spelling draught, which nonetheless was pronounced "draft."  After independence, a number of traditional English spellings were modernized in America to match their actual pronunciations, such as "jail" from the English form, "gaol."

Druther I'd rather

Druthers what a person prefers or wants (from I'd rather)

Dunno don't know

Ee eye

Efter after

Egad a euphemism to avoid saying a blasphemous oath

Eglantine Rosa rubiginosa, also called sweetbrier or sweet briar rose

Elbow chair a chair with arms, an armchair

Elflocks tangled snarls of hair.  In the days of questionable hygiene, it was believed that elves tangled the hair as one slept.

Ell an addition to a building built at right angles with the main house

Encomium, plural encomia a written document expressing high praise

Engourdissement numbness (French)

Ettle aim

Ettlin aiming

Faain falling

Fain willing or agreeable; what one would like

Fancy as a noun, imagination; as a verb, what one believes or imagines to be true

Fash worry; as a noun, a difficulty, a reverse

Fathom understand

Ferrule a schoolmaster's long pole fitted with a wooden knob on the end, suitable for cracking absent-minded scholars on the head to focus their attention back on their schoolwork

Fettle condition; in fine fettle, in excellent condition or health

Fettlesome healthy

Fichu a triangular scarf worn around the shoulders, and, often, tucked into the open top of the bodice for warmth or for a more modest appearance; also called a handkerchief or kerchief; distinct from a pocket handkerchief in that the last is the only proper one in which to blow one's nose.

Fieber fever (German) 

File of foot an individual soldier, an enlisted man in an infantry regiment; this is where the expression "going single file" comes from.

Fireback a cast-iron panel at the back of a fireplace that helps radiate heat out into the room

Firkin a small wooden tub

Flaucht a lock, as of hair or wool

Fleam a sharp instrument for opening a vein; bleeding was used therapeutically for many ailments.

Follit followed 

Forgie forgive

Forlorn hope a military maneuver in which a body of soldiers is sent on a dangerous mission against the enemy, an effort so perilous it is almost certainly doomed to failure.

Frae from

Frisseur a hairdresser; a French word, and probably a Frenchman, as well.

Frizzen the vertical metal tongue against which the flint strikes a spark to ignite the powder priming in the pan of a flintlock musket or pistol

Frolic a social occasion, a party, which also might be called a frisk; New Englanders commonly called neighbors together and combined a work party with a social occasion, complete with food and drink, such as a husking frolic.

Frorn frozen

Frost-blained blistered from frostbite; the injury from frostbite is similar to that from a burn, and may similarly be measured in degrees of severity.

Fu full, meaning drunk (Scots)

Fundament also known as the arse, ass, bottom, breech, buttocks, butt, rump, rear, hind end, hinder end, backside, etc.

Furlough a leave of absence from duty, or period of leave during which a soldier might go home if he wished

Furrin foreign

Furriners foreigners

Gad God; an expression used to avoid blasphemy

Gae gave

Gape to open wide the mouth; if one reads in Jane Austen that someone has "the gapes," or sat and gaped through a concert, that person is yawning with boredom.  

Gars makes

Geal freeze (dialect, from "congeal")

Geyly greatly

Gie give

Gill a measurement of liquid equal to a quarter of a pint, pronounced "jill"

Girdle to cut and strip the bark of a tree completely around its circumference, thereby killing it

Gledes coals of a fire, embers

Goodwife a wife; a landlady

Gown a dress-like garment worn over the petticoat

Granddam grandmother

Greengown a girl who has sex before she is married; suggestive of a tryst out of doors where her behind will become green with grass stains.

Greetin, greeting weeping

Grizzled gray, refers to the color of hair

Groat a coin of very small value

Grunties pigs

Grup grip 

Guidman goodman; a husband

Hackle a steel comb (also called a hetchel) with long, stout, sharp, nail-like teeth arranged in multiple ranks on a sturdy wooden base, used for combing the bark out of flax fiber, a process called hackling.  After ripe flax plants were pulled from the field in which they had grown, they had to be retted (rotted, by soaking in water), braked, swingled, hackled, spun, dyed and woven to become linen cloth.  Joseph Plumb Martin, the author of the best private soldier's account of the American Revolution, speaks of a situation where soldiers stood up to an abusive officer to protect one of their fellows; as one, the angry soldiers presented their fixed bayonets at the officer's breast, Martin writes, "as thick as hetchel teeth."  The officer backed down.

Hale as a verb, haul; as a noun, health.  A Scots word, but still current in American English in the expression, "hale and hearty."

Handkin dialect for pocket handkerchief

Hangdog sad, unhappy

Hanky a pocket handkerchief

Hart a deer

Hartshorn ground deer's antler, a source of ammonia; "smelling salts" to aid in recovery from a faint.  Small, crushable capsules of ammonia are still used medically today for the same purpose.  They really work.

Hasty quick, hurried, impetuous

Hasty puddin or pudding cornmeal cooked in water to make a mush; a very common foodstuff for the soldiers of the Continental Army.

Haud hold; haud yur wheesht an imperative to “hush” or “be quiet”

Haul off to back up, or, metaphorically, to get ready to do something.  Originally "to haul off" in a ship meant to sail backwards, especially useful as a maneuver during a sea battle, perhaps to "bring one’s guns to bear"—position one’s cannon so that their shot might hit the enemy ship.  However removed from their ancestors’ nautical past, in the hinterlands, Americans who are riled up might still "haul off and hit someone."

Heed listen, pay attention

Heliotropic turning toward the sun, in the manner of some plants

Helve handle

Hermaphrodite a person with both male and female reproductive organs and secondary sexual characteristics after puberty; hence, a male with developed breasts—a more likely possibility to an 18th century male mind than that of a woman capable of doing a man's work.

Herisson a "hedgehog" (French), a French hairstyle of voluminous curls in an arrangement fullest on either side of the head

Hessians soldiers from the German province of Hesse.  King George III of England contracted with the prince of Hesse for troops to fight the Americans in the early years of the Revolution.  Americans were outraged that their own king should hire foreign conscripts to fight against them.

Het-up heated, upset

Hieland referring to the Highlands of Scotland

Hie-hiedit high-headed; imperious and insufferable

Hirple to limp

Hog a young female sheep that has hasn't been bred yet (sometimes spelled hogg)

Hose stockings

Hoose house

Hussy a brazen or forward girl, from hussif, originally, huswife or housewife

Hymenial hymeneal, from Hymen, the god of marriage.  By "hymenial bliss," Herman Mann means sex.

Ilka every

In the way pregnant

Inklin, inkling a suggestion, an idea, a hint

Instant, inst.  used in letter writing to mean the current month: "the 29th Instant"

Intentions publicly registering an intention of marriage with the town clerk.  In Massachusetts, a couple could legally marry thirteen days after publishing intentions.

Intricate clever and secretive

Itch, the itch a skin ailment, possibly scabies

Jackboot a heavy, stiffened leather boot reaching above the knee

Jape a mischievous joke, a prank

Jeune young man (French)

Jo my joy, an endearment

John Jones author of the definitive treatment, both surgical and medical, of battle-related injuries whose work was the handbook of American military surgeons during the Revolution, according to famous surgeon James Thacher

Jungling youngster, young fellow (German)

Kecksies a plant with a hollow stalk (Shakespeare)

Ken know

Kent well-known or familiar

Kill a stream or small river (Dutch); hence, "Fishkill," doubtless named for its good fishing.

Kirk church

Kirkless without a church building

Kist chest

Knap-bone knee bone

Lad, laddie a boy, a young man, a male

Laggard someone who falls behind, who fails to keep up

Lambsquarters a wild plant that grows across much of the United States and which is cooked and eaten as greens

Larder a pantry, a place for storing food

Larned learned

Lass a girl

Lat let

Lay into attack; also, eat with gusto

Leberklosse liver dumplings (German)

Leery doubtful, full of misgivings

Left-legged awkward

Lights lungs; refers to their light weight when removed from a butchered animal carcass.  "Liver and lights" were commonly bought together as cheap cuts of meat, but eventually the sale of lungs was outlawed to stop the spread of tuberculosis.

Lime calcium oxide, or CaO, also known as quick lime ("quick" meaning "alive"; in this case, reactive); a caustic substance obtained by calcining or heating limestone in a fire or a kiln until carbon dioxide is driven off from the calcium carbonate; the reactive element in mortar that becomes slaked lime, or calcium hydroxide (CaOH), when mixed with water.

Linsey-woolsey fabric woven of a blend of linen and wool that had a desirable hand and an attractive, glossy sheen.  A contemporary female observer from England said admiringly of New England women that their gowns of homespun and woven linsey-woolsey, subjected to a good ironing before church, looked "as glossy and fine as silk."

Linter dialect for "lean-to," describing such a shelter, or a permanent addition to an existing building

Lion a mountain lion, a cougar, also called a catamount

Lissomeness being slender, light, and graceful in appearance

List desired, inclined

Mad in British usage, insane; but in American English, more commonly, simply angry or furious—suggesting a Scottish influence on usage.  See dancing mad.

Mair more

Mam Mom; in contemporary writings such as Sally Mann's personal journal, the author refers to her husband's mother as "his Mam."

Mark a unit of currency or accounting; "all your thousand mark" would mean "great wealth."  More Viking influence on Scotland.

May a virgin girl

Matron (1) a woman in charge of the nursing staff of a hospital; (2) a married woman who has children

Maugre in spite of, despite

Maun must

Meetinghouse a church (New England vernacular; also a term used by members of the Society of Friends, also known as Quakers)

Merrythoughts the "wishbone" (properly, the furcula, which is in fact the two fused-together clavicles or collarbones) of a chicken or turkey.  Two people each make a wish while pulling the wishbone in two between them, the victor being the one who receives the bigger part.  Breaking merrythoughts together was a common action of flirting young people, and probably indicated romantic interest.

Milch milk

Minnie mother 

Missish affecting a disapproving primness

Mither-lied mother tongue, one's native language

Mitt a woman's dress glove, made of lace, that leaves the fingers uncovered

Moggins stockings, socks

Moroccan made of moroccan leather

Mortal causing or leading to death

Mrs. Malaprop Sheridan's character in the play The Rivals who famously misspeaks, continually confusing one word with another that sounds similar, to ridiculous effect; e.g., "illiterate" for "obliterate," and "pineapple" for "pinnacle."  She has given her name to the word malapropism.

Muckle much

Mucklest biggest, largest

Muff an open-ended cylinder made of fur, an accessory used to keep the hands warm, with one hand going in at each end

Mum silent

Mun must

Murther murder.  The traditional spelling, still used in the 18th century, although probably already pronounced "murder."

Muzzy vague and confused, clouded because of illness, injury or inebriation

NB abbeviation for nota bene, Latin for “note well.”

Nae no

Naggie a horse

Nap a knock; also, a knee (Scots)

Nary never, not one

Natural philosopher a scientist (which term was not coined until the early 19th century)

Naucht naught, nothing

Naught nothing

Necessary an outhouse, an outdoor latrine or toilet built over a pit to collect the waste

Neips turnips (Scots)

Nelson's balls fashionable round buttons adorning ladies' clothing, resembling round musketballs or cannonshot, so-called in admiration of the exploits of Admiral Horatio Nelson in Britain's war against Napoleon Bonaparte; see both connotations of balls.

Nether lower

New-levy recently enlisted

Nigh nearly, close to

Nightstool a chamberpot (which see)

Noggin a mug; colloquially, a person’s head is also his noggin.

Nowt English dialect for nothing

Nubbin a small, ill-formed, incompletely developed ear of corn; colloquially, any small or inconsequential thing, a leftover

O of

Obleegement obligation

Ochone an expression of regret

Od a euphemism to avoid blasphemy by saying the name of God

Oyse dialect for oyster

Oliekoeck a fried pastry, a doughnut (Dutch)

Oncet dialect for once

Ony any

Oo wool

Ordience dialect for audience, duplicating Deborah's spelling from her lecture-tour diary; the spelling clearly reflects how she (and possibly everyone else) must have pronounced it.  In the diary she also writes "invertation" for "invitation," and "Alberney" for "Albany"—until she arrives in that place, after which she uses the standard spelling.

Orn'ry, ornery uncooperative, difficult, hard to get along with; in children, mischievous; in middle America, at least, pronounced "onry."

Outs not getting along with, as in, "on the outs"

Overhauls full length trousers (in the Light Infantry, of white linen or woolen cloth) that buttoned over the boot at the bottom like a gaiter (similar to overalls)

Ower over (Scots); doubtless a common dialect pronunciation, if one judges by poetry, where it is usually rendered as o’er

Packet a ship that sails regularly over a short, fixed route, carrying passengers and freight

Pap food for babies, or anything similar to a smooth gruel

Paper cartridge a small square of paper rolled into a tube, containing a musketball and enough powder to both prime the pan and fire the gun; both ends are then twisted closed to keep the contents inside.  In the Light Infantry, cartridges were pre-made and stored at the ready in a cartridge box containing a wooden block drilled with holes to hold them in an orderly arrangement.  After loading the gun, the emptied paper cartridge itself is rammed in to compact the charge of powder and musketball in the butt end of the barrel—so that when the firelock is "snapped," meaning, the trigger is pulled, the spark made by the flint striking the frizzen will ignite the powder in the pan, which flame will then travel inside through the touchhole and ignite the more voluminous powder charge, making the gun fire.  Touchholes easily became fouled with burnt powder, so soldiers carried a metal pick for cleaning them out.  (NB: A twist of paper was a common vehicle to contain all manner of things; for instance, a small purchase of candy would be wrapped up in a twist of paper by a proprietor instead of enclosed in a paper sack, as the latter did not yet exist.)

Papermon newspaperman 

Parole the release of a prisoner of war, usually limited to officers, on the condition of his giving his word as a gentleman not to resume arms—not to fight again 

Parquette the main floor of a theater and the seats located there

Passions emotions

Pate the head (also called a poll or, colloquially, a noggin)

Patten a clog worn over the shoe, with a raised wooden platform and a supporting iron ring underneath, designed to keep the wearer's foot clear of the mud and damp.  Ladies "clink-clinked" in them from the sound of the iron ring contacting the stone cobbles underfoot.  Unpaved roads could become such impossible mires of mud that there were even pattens made for horses to wear in some instances.

Pay heed listen, pay attention

Pease peas; pea soup was traditionally known as "pease porridge" or "pease pottage," as in the unsavory traditional rhyme, "Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold/Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old."

Peel a long-handled, flat wooden shovel used for removing food or pans from a hot oven

Pemmican a native food of dried meat, fat, ground nuts and dried berries designed to keep very well, especially good for traveling because it is ready to eat and calorie-dense.

Pentimento traces of an underlying oil painting appearing through an overlying one, when a canvas has been reused, or painted over with a new image.

Peruvian bark the raw material from which quinine is made; also called Jesuits' bark.

Petticoat a skirt that fastened around the waist, worn over the shift and under the gown; layers of petticoats or underskirts might be worn for fullness, for fashion, or for warmth.  In the 18th century the petticoat was likely to be visible and coordinate esthetically with the gown, which went through various fashions of being “picked up,” gathered back or flounced on either side of the exposed petticoat.

Pettle caress

Pilot a guide, an advanced scout

Pitchers nosy children: the traditional saying is, "Little pitchers have big ears"—so one must be careful what is said in their hearing.

Pluck all the internal organs and intestines from an animal when it is butchered.  Pluck used to be sold to the poor for food, but the practice was finally outlawed (although probably not until the 20th century) as part of the public health effort to control tuberculosis.  That disease could be spread through the consumption of an animal’s infected lungs, which were commonly sold as “liver and lights,” the lights being the lungs.  Pluck is an outdated word now; yet a plucky person still is admired today for being bold and courageous—in other words, for having guts.

Poke a sack, a cloth bag

Poleaxed literally, hit in the head with an ax (a particular medieval style of ax, at that); figuratively, overcome with amazement; gobsmacked.  One's gob is the same as one's "pie-hole"—doubtless where gobbling one's food comes from.

Pollywog an immature frog having only a head joined to a round, limbless body, gills, and a tail; also called a tadpole.

Pong a light carriage, probably drawn by one horse

Poorly ill, unwell

Post-prandial after eating, or having eaten (from the Latin prandium, breakfast)

Pou a pull, to take a drink of something

Powder to coat oiled hair with flour to resemble a powdered wig.  Requiring soldiers to powder their hair for special occasions conferred a uniformity of appearance otherwise lacking in an army only haphazardly clothed.  Being an elite corps, and the period during which Deborah Sampson served being late in the war, when the French crown was helping fund the American war effort, the Light Infantry enjoyed more complete and more elaborate uniforms than most.

Prognathic having a heavy, projecting jaw

Pshaw an expression of derision or dismissal

Puddin pudding; everything from a hasty corn mush to an elaborate dish wrapped in a pudding cloth and steamed for hours until it was cooked through.  Puddings could be sweet or savory.

Punch contrary to its modern incarnation as a party beverage for children, a popular and strongly alcoholic drink of spirits (usually rum) mixed with fruit juice and sugar.  Punchbowls originally might be passed from hand to hand as a communal cup from which everyone drank (recall Old King Cole, who "called for his pipe and he called for his bowl and he called for his fiddlers three").  There exists somewhere a famous engraving of a happy drunken gathering of sea captains in a tavern; notable among the crowd are a man who is drinking from the punchbowl, a second who has already exceeded his capacity and passed out on the table, and a third who is taking advantage of the second fellow’s indisposition by throwing up into his coat pocket.

Quean woman, young woman 

Queue the hair of the head gathered into a short braid or tail of hair at the nape of the neck and tied with a ribbon or some other restraint

Rake a licentious man, a libertine, a man who pursues many women sexually

Rascallion a rogue, a rascal

Rebonding rebounding, careering around (French)

Receipt a recipe

Red-shank (pejorative) a Highlander, especially, a soldier belonging to a Scottish regiment; referring to legs reddened by cold because exposed and bare beneath a kilt.  Americans considered Highlanders to be foreigners rather than fellow British citizens, not least because their native speech was Gaelic.  Americans felt the same umbrage about King George III sending Highland regiments to combat the American revolutionaries that they felt about the Hessian mercenaries.  An early, work-in-progress version of the Declaration of Independence said as much when detailing the people's grievances against the King.

Redstreak a variety of apple highly prized for cider-making

Rheumaticks arthritis

Rile excite, upset (dialect from roil)

Rive to split; riven split (past tense)

Rosemary the aromatic and medicinal shrub, Rosmarinus officinalis.  Rosemary was "for remembrance"; it was (and is, supported by modern research) reputed to improve memory.  It was used anciently to bedeck bridal beds—to remind the newly-wed couple that they were married now, and therefore not to have sex with anybody else.

Rout a resounding and humiliating defeat

Runt the stump of a tree

Sack scrotum

Sark a shift (which see); the famous "cutty sark" taken as a whiskey brand name is doubtless from the Robert Burns poem as well as common usage, and means a shift of short length, revealing for its skimpishness.

Sarve dialect for serve

Sawney (an American pejorative) a Scotsman

Scairt scared

Scant and want poverty and hunger; a Scottish phrase

Schooner a two-masted sailing ship with fore-and-aft rig

Scotify to render or translate into Scots

Scots also called Lallans, the language of Lowland Scotland; it shares a common ancestor with English.  Lallans had a very strong influence on regional and colloquial American speech, especially of yesteryear, much of which is retained to this day—it’s just that most Americans don’t realize it.

Scranny scrawny, skinny, puny

Scrape a shave

Screivin writing

Scrivener a clerk whose job it is to make handwritten copies of documents

Scruple (1) as a noun, a moral consideration that governs one's behavior; (2) an apothecaries' unit of weight for a very small amount; therefore, a tiny amount; (3) as a verb, to hesitate because of moral standards

Seethe boil; sodden originally was the past participle of seethe and modernly has come to mean, "saturated with water" or "soaked."  We don't seethe things anymore, but when we're furiously angry or boiling mad, we're seething.

Shanks legs

Shallop a masted boat with a shallow draft, common to coastal waters

Shaw show

Shift a long, slip-like undergarment worn under petticoats and a gown during the day, which can also be worn as a nightgown for sleeping; also called a "smock" in English and American usage, and a "sark" in Scots.

Shilpit puny; small and weak

Shitten filthy

Siegecraft the military techniques appropriate for carrying out a siege.  George Washington and his French allies carried out the last classical siege in military history in their siege of Cornwallis and his troops at York, Virginia, in 1781.

Sienite a variety of granite that contains little quartz

Simple stupid behavior, or simply stupid; one who is simple may be mentally handicapped, deeply stupid, or just a fool.

Sippets toasted bread that has been crusted and cut into wedges; 18th century "toast points."

Sir Richard rum

Skellum a rascal

Skelpit beat or beaten, whipped

Skelpins beatings

Skinfull drunk from consumption of alcohol

Slough a marsh, a bog, a great area of watery mud, pronounced sloo.

Sma small; "wet the sma end o our moggins" means get our feet wet.  Alternatively, as in small beer, low in alcohol content.

Sma drink an unimportant thing or person, "no sma drink"

Smallclothes breeches (see breeks)

Smock a shift (which see)

Sonsie good, honest, fine, impressive, handsome

Soothsayer a fortuneteller; someone who claims to foretell the future.

Sorrel greens a wild plant eaten as a vegetable

Spinster an unmarried woman, so called after the universal occupation of women not otherwise employed, spinning flax or woolen fiber into thread.  In New England "spinster" was even a legal definition.

Stanes stones, rocks

Stays a corset, worn over the shift and laced tight for support of the bosom.  Expensive ones were "boned," or reinforced with whalebone, and made of fine fabric; the eyelets for lacing them up would be oversewn with fine thread, perhaps of silk.

Stour strong, fertile

Stove-up beaten up, weary, worn-out, exhausted; from the part particle of stave.  A barrel made of staves or a clinker-built boat having a hole smashed in it would be stove in.

Straight edge and strop a razor and the leather strap against which it is honed

Stone an English measurement of weight equal to fourteen pounds; also, a hard mineral mass that can form in the kidney or bladder from drinking too little water, a common ailment in an age when people rightly feared impure water as a source of contagion.  During the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was in such pain from a bladder stone that he was carried to and from the proceedings in a litter; he had refused the standard surgery to remove a stone—a supra-pubic incision through the abdominal wall, performed without anesthetic—for fear he wouldn't survive it.

Streek stretch

Strewth an oath, from "God's truth"

Stripling a teenage boy, not yet fully grown

Sun-sink a construction or device used in gardening—sometimes merely the corner made by two brick garden walls, or the south-facing brick or stone wall of a house, to produce a greenhouse-like effect; e.g., for growing a plant in a colder climate than it normally can bear, or to produce an early crop

Sweetbrier a rose whose foliage is fragrant, especially when wet.  Any trailing, tangling or thickety plant that possesses thorns can be called a brier.

Swingling using a flat, wooden, knife-like tool, a swingle, to beat and scrape the bark from a handful of flax stems that have already been put through a flax brake to crush them; a step along the road to making linen from flax.

Swole dialect for swollen

Taffrail the rail around the quarterdeck at the stern (the rear) of a ship.  No one could stand on the quarterdeck without the captain's permission.

Tar a sailor, short for "Jack-tar"

Tarry, tarried, tarrid to stay, or to have stayed

Taties, tatties potatoes

Tentie attentive, assiduous         

Thae those or there, depending on context

Theodolite a piece of surveying equipment, modernly called a transit

Thews muscles; scant o thews, slight of muscle

Thocht a thought; a slight amount; a short period of time

Thon that

Thornyback (pejorative) a spinster or unmarried woman of advanced age; an old maid 

Thraw defy

Thrawart defiant

Thrumming having sex with

Til to (more Viking influence on Scottish speech)

Tis it is

Toddle off go on, off you go!

Toddlin waddling

Tonic a beneficial medicine, originally one designed to increase the body's "tone" 

Trull a prostitute

Truckle bed also called a trundle bed, a bed on a low bedstead that can slide, or trundle, underneath a taller bedstead for storage.  Space in 18th century houses was always at a premium, and many space-saving designs for furniture existed.

Tryst a meeting, especially, a lovers' private meeting

Tup a ram, a male sheep used for breeding

Twas it was

Twa two

Twain two

Tither, t'ither, or tother the other

Twist thread

Ultimo, ult.  used in letter writing to refer to a previous month: "the 2nd of July ult."

Unco unusual (Scots)

Ungagents a rich ruffle of lace or fabric worn at the end of a gown's elbow-length sleeves, very stylish in the 18th century (French)

Unguent a soothing or medicinal ointment

Untrammeled unburdened, unrestricted

Ursine bear, bear-like (from the Latin ursa, bear)

Vendue a public auction

Victuals food, pronounced vittles

Victually a toothsome, foody smell, pronounced vittley

Viz.  abbreviation for Latin vide licet, meaning, "namely" or "specifically"

Vomit a medicine to induce vomiting, an emetic

Wame stomach, abdomen

Wean a child, a youngster

Weanlings children

Wee small, thin, puny, little

Ween to believe or suppose 

Wheen a little, a few

Wheatmeal wheat flour

Wheesht as a verb, hush, keep silent; as a noun, silence, as in haud yur wheesht

Whist a card game played by two pairs of players

Widder widow

Windage the area covered or "drawn" by a ship's sails

Winna will not

Wisna was not

Woodscolt American dialect for a child born out of wedlock, a bastard child

Worm-plums a bolus of medicine designed to rid a child of parasitic worms; a vermifuge.  Worm infestations were very common from the practice of taking "night waste," feces from the collecting pits of outhouses, and using it to fertilize vegetable gardens.  Very successful herbal remedies existed that were anthelminthic, and children were regularly dosed with them.  

Wyce intelligent (similar to wise)

Wuffle to blow

Yellow fever a viral, febrile, hemorrhagic illness spread by the bite of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.  The illness could range from mild cases to fatal ones, even among members of a single family.  Coma, which stemmed from incipient liver failure, was a dire sign.  Sometimes after a victim was believed to have recovered, a late death could still occur from previously undiagnosed heart damage.  (See also black vomit, which was a cardinal sign of the illness.)

Yestere'en last night

Younker young man (Dutch)

This glossary was written by Jane Tarkin, copyright © 2021 by Jane Tarkin. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the author.