Tudor glossary
This may help you with words you don't recognise. If you have a difficult word that isn't in this list, try reading it aloud - it may sound like a word you know. You may also be able to find the word in a modern dictionary.
Remember that in 16th and 17th centuries people often wrote words as they pronounced them and if people spoke with different accents they had different spellings for the same words. There were no standard ways to spell words.
Afternoon racks - frame for drying or stretching wool and cloth, possibly as the last part of the process
Andirons - metal stand for logs in a fireplace
Auger - tool for boring holes in wood
Back sword - a sword with only one cutting edge
Beam and scales - for weighing
Beck - tool with a long blade and a wooden handle used for cutting hedges, branches etc
Beetle - wooden mallet possibly used for beating wool
Bill - farming tool with two hooks, used for hoeing
Bolster - a long stuffed pillow or cushion
Bolting hutch - box for sifting, possibly grain
Broaches or broaches - roasting spits
Bucking tub - for boiling or soaking cloth
Buckram - coarse linen stiffened with gum
Cauldron - a large vessel for heating water
Coverlet - a bedcover
Dusk flocks - dark flock (see 'flocks')
Firkin - a small wooden cask
Flocks - particles or clumps of untreated wool.
Hames - horse collar
Hogshead - large cask for liquids: as a measure 52½ gallons
Holland - linen from Holland
Joined stool - stool made by a joiner, a more skilfull worker than a carpenter
Keaver - a shallow wooden tub
Kirtle - an underskirt or petticoat
Knede trough - a shallow rectangular wooden bowl for kneading bread
Kyve - a wooden tub or vat
Pillowbeers - pillow cases
Pottingers - a small bowl for holding liquid such as soup
Powdering tub - a tub for salting or pickling
Rapier - a light, sharp, pointed sword
Salt seller - for holding salt. The modern spelling is cellar
Sectour - executor of a will
Stall (of bees) - hive
Stiddles - supports, possibly for a bed (as in bedsteddle)
Teasles - prickly flower head used for combing wool and teasing finished cloth to raise a 'nap'
Triste - possibly trestle. Trestles are table or chair legs joined together at the top and used to support a board to make a table. It could also be a small stool
Wainscott - a lining, often of wood, put on walls
Weather racks - racks for drying
Wimble - tool for making holes
