Expand Your Vocabulary

Dr Vernon Coleman




When I started to put together my dictionary of Old English Words and Phrases I thought that it would not be a book to sit down and read unless you are the sort of person who enjoys reading dictionaries, thesauruses and books of quotations.

I thought of it, rather, a book to keep by your bedside or chair-side to dip into at odd moments, during television advertisements or the dull bits of programmes which promised more than they delivered.

But as the book proceeded my view of it changed and by the time I was half way through I had realised that the book was acquiring a personality of its own – rather different to the usual collection of words; it had become something of a social history.

I also realised that this book had become the sort of publication which has an added value as a source of entertainment, amusement and information; of the sort which I refer to as the `I say, Hilda, listen to this’ or `You won’t believe this, Gerald’ variety. (Naturally, you can interchange the names if you don’t know anyone called Hilda or Gerald).

I started collecting Victorian and rarely used words when I began writing my series of books about the village of Bilbury in Devon. I have no idea why I did this since the books were (and are) set in the 1970s, but it seemed a fun way to spice up the language. As a result, I now have a large library containing around 100 old dictionaries, books of quotations, thesauruses and books of slang and curious old English words. And, of course, printed matter, which is largely reliable, can always be supplemented with the internet, which is an endless and inspirational source of contradictions and confusions. Wherever possible I’ve tried to include a few etymological and historical references though I do have to admit that many etymological references probably owe as much to the imaginations of their originators as anything else.

This book is full of forgotten, out of use words, words which haven’t (officially) been used since the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, words which have been lost, abandoned, changed or suppressed and words which have changed their use since they were first introduced (the definitions I have given here are the original definitions). This is a book to take with you if you have an appointment where you know you will have to wait for longer than is decent or if you need to make a journey of indeterminate length. It is a book to dip in and out of; it is a book to entertain and to educate. You will, perhaps, be surprised at how many synonyms there are for `girl’, `prostitute’ and `brothel’ and how much time appears to have been spent in pubs and in teasing, tricking and performing complicated practical jokes – all of which doubtless took the place of social media. Skulduggery and stealing were commonplace and managed quite well without computers or the internet.

I hope this is a book which will, painlessly, help you expand your word power. These are words which are an essential part of the English language; a vital part of our culture and a part of our history which is endangered. Most of these words do not appear in standard, modern dictionaries and those that do are usually defined in other ways; as a result this book is intended as an essential supplement to a good, standard dictionary. Rogues, bawds, innkeepers, pimps, brothel keepers, whores, pickpockets and shoplifters had a surprisingly large vocabulary.

I have consulted every old, out of print dictionary I can find – there are far more of them than you might imagine. Dr Samuel Johnson was not the only person compiling a dictionary and some of the volumes I’ve studied were published more than a century before Dr Johnson produced his famous opus.

I have also included one or two of the most popular street cries and details of some of the often cruel and invariably rather complicated practical jokes which were a major part of daily life in the centuries up until the year 1900. And I have included quite a good deal of slang, including a little Cockney rhyming slang (which I’m afraid I find quite boring), but I have omitted deeply offensive words since I assume most people won’t want to use them and their presence would merely ensure that this, like many of my other books, gets banned or submerged in a hailstorm of one star reviews. I’ve had more than enough banning to last a lifetime, thank you very much, and it is my hope that this modest adventure into etymology will not worry the censors unduly. I hope that no reader will be offended by the inclusion of the slang in this book. I am not the first editor to be aware of the hazard such inclusions must inevitably pose. In 1793, When James Caulfield published his dictionary entitled `Blackguardiana: or, a dictionary of rogues, bawds, pimps, whores, pickpockets, shoplifters’ he ended his Preface with these words: `The Editor likewise begs leave to add, that if he has the misfortune to run foul of the dignity of any body of men, profession, or trade, it is totally contrary to his intention; and he hopes the interpretations given to any particular terms that may seem to bear hard upon them, will not be considered as his sentiments, but as the sentiments of the persons by whom such terms were first invented, or those by whom they are used.’ Caulfield, whose book was priced at `one guinea in boards’, said that he had collected words from numerous sources including `The Bellman of London, first published in 1608, and other dictionaries of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Not that this book is just about etymology. It’s also about social and cultural history. Read about the words and phrases on these pages and you will discover that within all sectors of society there was a healthy disrespect for authority. People often took the law into their hands if someone in their community broke the rules. This was as true for, say, soldiers or seamen as for gang members. They didn’t run off to complain to a senior officer, or make an anonymous complaint on social media, but they merely operated their own form of rough justice.

Moreover, it is clear from these words that centuries ago citizens had different priorities: drinking, games, sex and community life were all vital parts of each individual’s life. Social strata may have been more obvious but instead of hidden resentment there was a healthy upwardly directed disrespect. And it has to be admitted that the thieving was somehow more straightforward than the sort of thieving we say today. Pickpockets were rife, as were burglars, but the thieves operated on a physical rather than a mental level. Things have changed. Yesterday, for example, I received no less than 14 emails (from different sources) telling me that a parcel was waiting for me and that I needed to get in touch with the sender immediately. I also received an email telling me that my website would disappear from the ether unless I sent money to someone somewhere. And today my wife received an urgent phone call from a caller who told her that if she didn’t take action (and ring a number she was given) within two hours then her mobile phone would stop working – permanently. The crooks get craftier and nastier with each day that passes.

My aim, and hope, (and I’ve been working on this book for many years so I’m entitled to a little hope) is that at least some of these words and phrases (most of which first saw the light of day in the 19th century or before) will be revived and will return to our currently rather dull communal lexicon, overladen as it is with abbreviations and modern, technical jargon which is too often pompous and incomprehensible while also being far less colourful. These words and phrases will, I hope, add fun to your language though I should, I suppose, warn you once again that the book might not be a perfect cup of tea for the easily offended and wearily politically correct.

To give you a flavour of the book I have chosen one letter of the alphabet at random. Here, therefore, are the entries under the letter N. If you want to learn the words for the rest of the alphabet then I’m afraid you’ll have to buy the book. To do so, please CLICK HERE

Nail a goss – steal a hat (hats were called `goss’ because they were as light as gossamer; most people wore one and they were expensive so they were worth stealing and there was a ready market for them)

Nail a strike – steal a watch

Namby-pamby – weak, ineffectual and fearful

Nana – outrageous, indecent (from the novel Nana by Emil Zola)

Nancy – slightly effeminate

Nancy tales – humbug

Nanny house – brothel

Napper – head

Napper of Naps – sheep stealer

Nark the titter – watch that woman

Nap or nothing – all or nothing

Nattermy – thin human being

Near and far – bar (rhyming slang)

Neck stamper – boy who collects pots lent out from a pub to people in private houses

Necromancer – someone who communicates (or claims to communicate) with the dead

Needful – money

Needle - irritated

Negligee – mid 18th century word from the French; a light, filmy dressing gown which shows nothing but nevertheless tends to reveal more than it hides (from the verb negliger – to neglect)

Negus – port wine and hot water with grated nutmeg sprinkled into the drink

Neopolitan bone ache – the pox; venereal disease

Nepotation – extravagance, squandering money on riotous living; (from time to time a modern film, music or sports star who has gone bankrupt will say, with something of a wry smile, `I spent 90% of my money on wine and women and wasted the rest’ – that’s nepotation)

Nescience – ignorance; taken from Middle English; the Middle English folk took it from the Latin word nescient which means `not knowing’

Nettled – peevish, in a bad mood; described as `a man or woman who has pissed on a nettle’

Neurasthenia – once a common diagnosis though with a variety of very ill-defined; symptoms usually including tiredness, irritability and emotional lability (neurasthenia still exists, albeit under a variety of different names)

Never squedge – duffer who seems to be without a pulse

Nice place to live – awful place to live

Nick name – name given in contempt or ridicule, from the French nom de nique

Nicknackatory – toy shop

Nightman – man whose job it was to empty soil buckets; this was usually done at night and the operation was called a wedding

Nimiety – extravagance, excess

Niminy-piminy – prim, refined, ladylike, effeminate; from the late 18th century

Ninny – foolish and weak person

Ninnyhammer flycatcher – an oaf

Nip Cheese – purser on a ship (pursers were renowned for stealing from seamen’s allowances); also any stingy person

No better than they ought to be – worse than many

Noddiepeak slmpleton – an oaf

Noddy – simpleton, fool; also a type of buggy or one horse chaise

Noisome – smelly, noxious, disagreeable

Non-con – non comformist

Norfolk Howard – bed bug

Norway neckcloth – pillory (usually made with wood from Norwegian fir)

Nose and chin – gin (rhyming slang)

Nose-bagger – day visitor to the seaside who brings his own food (in a bag) and spends nothing locally

Nostrum – quack medicine

Not on borrowing terms – not friendly (`we’re not on borrowing terms with the neighbours’)

Not the cheese – unsatisfactory

Not today, Baker – no thank you

Not up to Dick – poorly

Not worth a rap – worthless

Notch – private parts of a woman

Now or never – clever

Nuf ced – no need to say more

Nug – word of endearment as in `my dear nug’

Nugatory – trifling and pointless and without value

Numbskull – fool, idiot

Nummamorous – loving money

Nunnery – bawdy house

Nuptiated – married

Nurse the hoe-handle – lazy (about a gardener or farm labourer)

Nursery noodles – fastidious critics who pick fault with everything

Nuts – agreeable as in `it was nuts for everyone’ means `everyone had a good time’

Nympholepsy – yearning for the impossible or unattainable; sometimes used to describe the passion of men for girls

Nypper – a cut purse; in 1585 a man called Wotton kept an academy in London where pick-pockets and cut purses were trained; since many people wore their purse on a belt or girdle the easiest way to steal it was to cut it; it seems possible that Wotton was the model for Fagin, the character in Charles Dickens’ novel `Oliver Twist’

NOTE
Taken from `Vernon Coleman’s Dictionary of Old English Words and Phrases’. For more details please CLICK HERE

Copyright Vernon Coleman April 2025





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