Guides > How to Tell a Hoyden from a Harlot

How to Tell a Hoyden From a Harlot

An incident in-game got me to thinking about curses, perjoratives, and generally nasty things to say to and about other characters. It can be argued that resorting to modern-day colloquialisms ("Eat me!" "You suck!") is OOC, and you're going to end up banned if you take a cue from George Carlin's Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television (this link may offend you, so be warned). So what's the player of a foul-mouthed dandy like Jurion to do?

Well, I resorted to archaic words to get my point across. Unfortunately, a lot of players either had no idea what I was talking about, or they jumped to conclusions that made what they thought I said a lot worse than what I actually said. Hence the title of this page.

Therefore, for your amusement and enlightenment, I present a glossary of my favorite words so that you will have some idea what it means when Jurion calls you a "poxy hoyden."

apoplexy     15th century

A fit of extreme anger or rage.

arse     12th century

1. The buttocks, or the region thereof.

2. A stupid, obstinate, or perverse person.

avow     14th century

1. To declare assuredly.

2. To declare openly, bluntly, and without shame.

bawd     14th century

1. A woman who keeps a brothel; a madam.

2. A woman prostitute.

beast with two backs     1604

Sexual intercourse. Shakespeare, from Othello. Usually phrased as making the beast with two backs.

besot     1581

1. To stupefy with drink.

2. To make stupid or foolish, esp. with infatuation, to be besotted.

blackguard     1535

1a. A rude or unscrupulous person.

1b. A person who uses foul or abusive language.

booby     1599

An awkward or foolish person. Although it's sometimes confused with boob, this one doesn't have anything to do with breasts; for that, you want to see bubby, below.

box the ears     1519

To hit someone else's ears with your hand; think of this as an old-fashioned form of spanking (to have one's ears boxed).

bravo     1597

A villain or desperado, especially a hired assassin.

bubby     1675

A breast. The plural is bubbies, which was corrupted into boobies in the 1930's and thence to boob in the 1950's.

buggery     1514

Sodomy.

cadger     13th century

One who gets what he wants by imposing on another's generosity or friendship. The back-formation into a verb, to cadge, meaning to beg or wheedle, dates from the 19th century.

carking     1565

Burdensome or annoying.

chancre     1605

An ulcer or small sore, esp. a venereal one arising from primary syphilis.

churl     12th century

1a. A rude ill-bred person.

1b. A stingy morose person.

coney     12th century

1. A rabbit.

2. A dupe or foolish person.

cosset     1659

To treat as a pet; to pamper.

cozen     1573

To deceive, win over, or induce to do something by artful coaxing and wheedling or shrewd trickery.

cuckold     1589

1. A man whose wife is sexually unfaithful.

2. To be sexually unfaithful to one's spouse. Traditionally, the phrase to cuckold refers to making a man into a cuckold by sleeping with his wife. To cuckold the parson is a newer 19th century phrase meaning "to have premarital sex with one's intended wife."

cullion     1590

A contemptible fellow; a rascal; also cully. This is Shakespearean; see The Taming of the Shrew. In plural, cullions may also be used to mean testicles.

cur     13th century

1. A mongrel or inferior dog.

2. A surly or cowardly fellow.

curmudgeon     1577

A crusty, ill-tempered, and usually old man.

daft     14th century

1. Silly or foolish.

2. Mad or insane.

dandle     1530

1. To move (as a baby) up and down in one's arms or on one's knee in affectionate play; to dandle on my knee.

2. To pamper or pet.

dandy     1780

A man who gives exaggerated attention to his personal appearance.

dotard     14th century

A man in a state or period of senile decay, marked by decline of mental poise and alertness; in his dotage.

doxy     1530

1. A female lover; a mistress.

2. A sexually promiscuous woman.

drab     14th century

1. A prostitute.

2. A slattern.

dram     14th century

A small drink of spirits. Derivatives: dram-drinker, a tippler, and dram-shop, a barroom.

dug     1530

1. An udder.

2. Vulgar when used of a woman; a teat or breast.

dullard     15th century

A stupid or unimaginative person.

faugh     1542

An interjection used to express contempt, disgust, or abhorrence.

flirt-gill     16th century

1. A woman of light or loose behavior.

2. A giddy or thoughtless girl. In this usage, it is sometimes reversed to gill-flirt.

fob     1542

To deceive or cheat. To fob off dates to 1597 and means to put off with a trick, excuse, or inferior substitute, or to pass or offer something spurious as the genuine article.

footle     1892

1. To talk or act foolishly.

2. To waste time.

fop     15th century

A man who is devoted to or vain about his appearance or dress. Q.v. dandy.

frig     1598

1. To have sexual intercourse with.

2. To perform an act of masturbation on.

frippery     1568

1a. An elegant or showy garment; finery.

1b. Something showy, frivolous, or nonessential, especially if it is foolish or affectedly elegant.

frowsy     1681

Having a slovenly or uncared-for appearance.

garderobe     15th century

1. A wardrobe or its contents.

2. A privy.

gib     1561

A male cat, especially a castrated one. To play the gib refers to a quarrelsome or meddlesome woman; likely it would be to play the gib with me, i.e. castrate me.

gigot     1526

1. A leg of meat, especially when cooked. Often specifically lamb, mutton, or veal.

2. A small piece of meat; a slice. Cut to gigots is another way to say cut to ribbons, i.e. hacked into bits. Also gigget or giggot.

gillie     1705, chiefly Scots

A male attendant. Stephen King reversed the gender on this one and used it to good effect in Wizard and Glass to mean a concubine.

gobshite     19th century, chiefly British

A contemptible person, esp. one prone to making inaccurate statements.

griped     12th century

Afflicted with spasmodic pain as if by contraction or constriction with respect to the bowels.

gudgeon     15th century

One who is easily duped.

gull     1793

1a. To trick, decieve, hoax, or cheat, esp. out of money.

1b. A fool, dupe, or chump; someone easily fooled. See gudgeon, above.

guttersnipe     1869

A person of the lowest moral or economic station.

halfwit     1640

A foolish or imbecilic person.

harlot     15th century

A prostitute.

harridan     1700

An ill-tempered scolding woman; a shrew.

hoyden     1676

A high-spirited, boisterous, or saucy girl.

hussy     1505

1. A lewd or brazen woman.

2. A saucy or mischievous girl.

jackanapes     1526

1. An impudent or conceited fellow.

2. A saucy or mischievous child.

knave     12th century

A tricky deceitful fellow.

lights     13th century

Lungs, usually of an animal. Often used in the phrase lights and liver, or lights, liver, and gall, to indicate the internal organs in general.

milksop     14th century

An unmanly man; a mollycoddle.

mollycoddle     1849

A pampered or effeminate man or boy.

ninny     1593

A fool or simpleton.

palsy     14th century

A condition marked by uncontrollable tremor of the body or a part. A dotard might be palsied.

pander     1530

1a. A go-between in love intrigues.

1b. A pimp.

2. Someone who caters to or exploits the weaknesses of others.

pert     14th century

Saucily free and forward; flippantly cocky and assured. A hoyden would be pert.

pluck     1611

The heart, lungs, and trachea. Sometimes also includes the tonsils, tongue, esophagus, and liver. Almost exclusively refers to viscera as used for food, i.e. sheep's pluck is an ingredient of haggis.

poltroon     1529

1. A spiritless coward.

2. Characterized by complete cowardice; craven.

pox     1550

1. A disease (as chicken pox) characterized by pustules or eruptions such as smallpox or syphilis.

2. A disastrous evil; a plague or curse. One usage is a pox upon him, or "may he be afflicted with the pox."

prate     15th century

To talk long and idly; to chatter.

prattle     1532

1. To utter or make meaningless sounds suggestive of the chatter of children; to babble.

2. To say in a childish manner.

3. Childish or empty talk.

privy     14th century

A small building having a bench with holes through which the user may defecate or urinate; a toilet.

purge     14th century

A violent evacuation of the bowels.

queynte     around 1387

1. Strange, or sly.

2. A woman's genitals. This is from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and it wasn't the "sly" definition, either.

rake     1653

A dissolute person, or one who is leading a dissolute life; a person who is unrestrained by convention or morality.

rapscallion     1699

A rascal.

shite     1721

Faeces, or the act of producing such. This spelling is British, as is the pronunciation, which rhymes with "light" instead of "lit."

simpleton     1650

A person lacking in common sense.

scapegrace     1809

A reckless, unprincipled person; a rascal or reprobate.

skainsmate     16th century

An unsavory companion, esp. a fencing-mate or cut-throat. Another Shakespearean insult, this appears as skains-mate in Romeo and Juliet. (Thanks to Jon Thaler for identifying the source of this one.)

skurf     12th century

1. Dandruff or any similar flaking skin condition.

2a. Something like flakes or scales adhering to a surface.

2b. The foul remains of something adherent.

slattern     1639

An untidy, slovenly woman.

sot     1592

A habitual drunkard. See besotted.

starveling     1546

One that is thin from or as if from lack of food.

stew     13th century

1a. A whorehouse.

1b. A district of bordellos, usually used in plural; the stews.

strangury     14th century

Slow and painful urination, usually restricted to a drop at a time.

strumpet     14th century

A prostitute.

swive     14th century

To copulate with.

tarse     17th century

A penis. Probably quite a bit older, as it comes from the Old English teors, but the more modern spelling can be found in the Earl of Rochester's A Satyre on Charles II, which dates from about 1674.

tricksy     1552

1. Smartly attired.

2. Full of tricks, prankish.

3a. Having the craftiness of a trickster.

3b. To be difficult to cope with or handle.

trig     1513

1. Stylishly or jauntily trim.

2. Extremely precise; prim.

trollop     1621

A vulgar or disreputable woman; especially one who engages in sex promiscuously or for money.

trull     1519

A prostitute. Q.v. strumpet.

tup     1604

To copulate with.

varlet     15th century

A base unprincipled person, a knave.

wastrel     1841

One who dissipates resources foolishly and self-indulgently; profligate.

wench     14th century

1a. A young woman or girl.

1b. A female servant.

2. A lewd woman; a prostitute

yammer     15th century

1. To utter repeated cries of distress or sorrow; to whimper.

2. To utter persistent complaints; to whine.

3. To talk persistently or volubly and often loudly.

Many of these words, though obsolete, can still be found in contemporary dictionaries. Some fun online resources to explore are Bartleby, the Online Etymology Dictionary, and the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

Most of my entries here include etymology and the relevant time period. Since this list is intended for a fantasy MUD, I've picked "archaic-sounding" words rather than any from a particular period in history. However, I am including dates for each entry for the sticklers among you.