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abbey-lubber A slothful loiterer in a religious house, under pretence of sanctity and austerity. Compounded of abbey and Danish lubbed, fat. [Fenning]

abcedarian A person or book that teaches the alphabet. [Sheridan] A word formed from the first four [or five] letters of the alphabet. [Whitney] SEE hornbook

abortive Fine vellum made from the skin of a cast [stillborn] calf or lamb. [Kersey]

abracadabrant Marvelous or stunning; from abracadabra, a magic word used as a spell in the United States. [Barrère]

accubitus Lying together in the same bed, but without any venereal commerce. [J. Coxe]

Adam's ale Water. [Smith] From the supposition that Adam had nothing but water to drink. In Scotland, water for a beverage is called Adam's wine. [Brewer]

admiral's watch A good night's sleep, especially at night; a favorable opportunity to rest. [Irwin]

adulterine A child born of an adultress. [Sheridan] Adulterine children are more odious than the illegitimate offspring of single persons. [E. Chambers]

adventurers upon return Those travellers who lent money before they went [abroad], upon the condition of receiving more on their return from a hazardous journey. This was probably their proper title. [Nares]

aflunters In a state of disorder. "Her hair was all aflunters." Yorkshire [J. Wright]

aforcing Stretching the amount of a dish to accomodate more people, usually by adding eggs, grain or cheese. [Shipley]

a-gatewards This is a very common and, I may add, very remarkable expression. To go a-gatewards with any one is to accompany him part of his way home. Gate is the public highway; wards denotes direction, as in home-wards, towards, &c. To go a-gatewards was therefore to conduct a guest towards the high-road, the last office of hospitality, necessary both for guidance and for protection, when the high-way lay across an undisclosed and almost trackless country, amidst woods and morasses. [J. Hunter]

agglutinants Those medicines which have the power of uniting parts together. [Sheridan] SEE colleticks

album nigrum The excrement of mice and rats, formerly used both externally and internally as a remedy but now, very properly, abandoned. [Hoblyn]

alectromantia Divination by a cock. Draw a circle, and write in succession round it the letters of the alphabet; on each side of it lay a grain of corn. Then put a cock in the centre of the circle, and watch the grains he eats. The letters will prognosticate the answer. [From] Greek alector, cock, manteia, divination. [Brewer] SEE gyromancy

alegar A hybrid word springing from the Saxon ale, and the French aigre [sour]. It is ale or beer which has passed through the acetous fermentation, and is used as a cheap substitute for vinegar, in imitation of which this word has been formed. [J. Hunter]

ale-score A debt at an ale-house. According to Wedgwood, score was originally a "notch, then from the custom of keeping count by cutting notches on a stick, account, reckoning, number, the specific number of twenty being the number of knotches it was convenient to make on a single stick. When that number was complete, the piece on which they were made was cut off [French, taillée] and called a tally." [Jackson] SEE milkscore

ale-taster An officer appointed in every court-leet to look to the assize and goodness of bread, ale and beer. [Kersey] Whatever might be their use formerly, their places are now regarded only as fine-cures [financial punishment] for decayed citizens. [Johnson]

allecter To wamble as a queasie stomacke dothe. [Cotgrave]

allemang Mixed together; a Wiltshire saying, when two flocks of sheep are accidentally driven together. [Grose, PG]

Copyright © 2000 by Jeffrey Kacirk