- Æthiopes
- A term applied to Africans originating south of Egypt and, hence, someone with a black skin.
- abrogated
- Repealed, annulled, cancelled, abolished by authority.
- acatalepsia
- Incomprehensibility: a term used by the Sceptic philosophers.
- acception
- The accepted or received meaning of a word or phrase.
- accouple
- To join one thing to another, to couple.
- acquest
- Something acquired, an acquisition.
- aculeate
- Pointed, incisive, stinging.
- addulce
- To sweeten, to render something pleasant.
- adust
- Burnt up, dried up with heat.
- adventive / adventitious
- Describing something that is not inherent but added from without.
- advoutry / advoutress
- Adultery / adultress.
- after-acts
- Subsequent actions.
- after-game
- A second game played in or to reverse or to improve upon the result of the first.
- alchemy
- Medieval chemistry, the principal aims of which were to transmute baser metals into gold and to discover both the alkahest or universal
solvent and the panacea or universal remedy.
- Alcoran
- The Koran, the sacred book of Muslims.
- Almaigne / Almain
- Germany / German - the term was more widely applied than the modern usage and could include the Flemish.
- almoner
- An official distributor of alms on behalf of a religious house, royal or noble household.
- ambage
- Circuitous, indirect or roundabout methods; delaying tactics.
- ambassage / ambassy
- The sending or dispatch of ambassadors; a mission. Also used to denote the message conveyed by an
ambassador.
- amortise
- To alienate property in mortmain, that is to convey it to a corporation.
- Anabaptist
- A Protestant sect which arose in Germany in 1521. Their name derived from their belief that baptism had to be
repeated in adulthood before it acquired spiritual significance. They opposed the payment of taxes and the service of the state either
as soldiers or magistrates. They were criticized by all the major reform movements.
- anagogical
- Mystical, spiritual, having a secondary spiritual sense.
- and it be / and it were
- As if
- anthemwise
- Anthiphonally, by two voices or choirs each singing as if in response to the other.
- anti-masque
- A comic or burlesque interlude between the acts of a masque.
- antiperistasis
- Opposition or contrast of circumstances; the resistance or reaction roused against an action.
- antistrophe
- An inverse relation or correspondence.
- apophthegm
- A terse, witty saying, embodying an important truth in a few words.
- appeach
- To be accused of a crime or informed against.
- apricock
- Apricot
- arbitrement
- The settlement of a dispute; a compromise or friendly agreement.
- arefaction
- The process of drying or the resulting condition.
- arietation
- The action of butting like a ram, and hence striking with a battering ram.
- artsman
- One skilled in the liberal arts, a scholar.
- asseveration
- Solemn affirmation, emphatic assertion, positive declaration.
- astrolabe
- An instrument used to take altitudes and to solve other problems of practical astrology.
- attemper
- To modify or moderate by blending with something of a different or opposite quality.
By extension to moderate passion, assuage harshness or soothe excitement.
- attentate
- A criminal attempt or assault.
- aversation
- Aversion
- axle-tree
- The fixed bar or beam of wood on the rounded ends of which the opposite wheels of a carriage revolve.
- baladine
- A theatrical dancer; a mountebank, buffoon.
- balm-wood
- Wood from a tree of the genus Balsamodendron, which exude an aromatic substance prized for its fragrance and medicinal properties.
- banneret
- An order of knighthood, originally conferred for valiant deeds done in the king's presence on the battlefield.
- barber-surgeon
- The Company of Barber-surgeons was incorporated in 1461 and its members not only cut hair and beards, but also practised surgery and dentistry.
- bashaw
- Turkish officers of high rank, such as military commanders and governors of provinces. There were three grades, distinguished by the number of horse-tails displayed as a symbol in war.
- bastinado
- A beating with a stick. The term is used figuratively meaning a tongue-lashing or slander.
- bead-roll
- A list of people to be specially prayed for.
- bear's-foot
- Hellebore
- benevolence-money
- A forced loan or contribution levied, without legal authority, by the kings of England on their subjects.
The name originates with Edward IV's forced loan of 1473.
- best-be-trust
- Most trusted; those in whom most confidence was placed.
- bird-witted
- Lacking the ability to concentrate.
- body-horse
- The horse that goes between the shafts of a cart or carriage.
- bondman/woman
- Someone who is in bondage; a feudal villein; a serf or slave.
- boscage
- A mass of growing trees or shrubs.
- boutefeu
- Someone who kindles discontent and strife; a firebrand.
- broiding
- Interweaving
- bruit
- Noise and clamour, and by extension rumours and reports made public.
- bullace
- A wild plum (Prunus insititia) larger than the sloe; there are two varieties, the black and the white.
- burgess
- An inhabitant of a borough possessing full municipal rights. By extension those elected to represent the boroughs, corporate towns and universities in parliament, as opposed to the knights who represented the counties.
- burse
- A meeting-place of merchants for the transaction of business; an Exchange.
- buttalling
- Bounding, abutting.
- cabala / cabalist
- The oral tradition handed down from Moses to the Rabbis of the Mishnah and the Talmud. A cabalist professes
acquaintance with and faith in this tradition.
- caitiff
- Originally meaning a captive, by extension a wretched miserable person. It often expresses contempt and means
a despicable wretch or villain.
- carnosity
- A morbid fleshy growth.
- castoreum
- A reddish-brown unctuous substance obtained from two sacs in the groin of the beaver and used in medicine and perfumery.
- catchpole
- A sheriff's officer or sergeant, especially a warrant officer who arrests for debt.
- caul
- A close-fitting cap worn by women and often richly decorated.
- cautel
- May mean either caution, wariness or cunning, craftiness.
- celsitude
- Lofty position, high rank; eminence.
- censorian
- Relating to the official supervision of public morals and conduct.
- chamaïris
- A dwarf iris.
- champaign
- An expanse of level, open country.
- check-roll
- A list of the people in the service of the king and chargeable to the royal exchequer, used to 'check' their payment, performance of their duties etc.
- chievance
- Raising of money.
- choler
- Bile. One of the four 'humours' of medieval physiology, an excess of which was supposed to cause irascibility of temper.
Those described as choleric had choler as their predominant humour.
- churm
- The mingled din or noise of many voices.
- chylus
- The milky white fluid formed by the action of the pancreatic juice and the bile in the small intestine on food that has been converted into pulpy acid matter by the gastric secretions in the stomach.
As chylus it is able to be absorbed by the body.
- cincture
- Enclosure.
- coarctation
- The action of compressing tightly or narrowly.
- cobweb-lawn
- A very fine transparent linen.
- cock-boat
- A small ship's boat, especially a small boat that is towed behind a coasting vessel or ship navigating a river.
- cockatrice
- A serpent, identified with the basilisk, fabulously said to kill by its mere glance and to be hatched from a cock's egg.
- cockered
- Indulged, humoured.
- coemption
- The buying up of the whole supply of a commodity.
- colliquation
- The process of making or becoming liquid.
- collocation
- The action of setting in place, especially arranging in relation to others.
- colourable
- Capable of being presented as true or right; having at least an appearance of justice or validity.
- comfit
- A sweetmeat made of some fruit, root etc. preserved with sugar.
- comminution
- Pulverization.
- Common Pleas
- A court for the trial of civil causes, the Common Pleas sat at Westminster and was one of the three superior courts of common law in England.
- common-weal / commonwealth
- The general good or advantage of a community and, by extension, the whole body of people constituting a nation or state.
- concomitantia
- An attendant state, quality, circumstance or thing.
- confiture
- A confection, usually of fruit or root preserved in sugar.
- cony
- A rabbit.
- contexture
- The linking together of materials or elements, so as to form a connected structure (natural or artificial).
- contristation
- The action of being sad; the state of being saddened.
- corn-master
- One who has corn to sell.
- cornelian
- A large shrub or low tree bearing edible fruits, sometimes called cherries. Native to Southern Europe it was cultivated in
sixteenth-century gardens.
- cosmography
- The science which describes and maps the general features of the universe (both the heavens and the earth), without
encroaching on the special provinces of astronomy or geography. In the early modern period it was also used to mean geography in the modern sense.
- court-fames
- An unofficial newsletter concerning the activities of the court.
- crocus vernus
- The spring-flowering crocus.
- cumber
- An inconvenience or embarrassment.
- cypress-tree
- A coniferous tree Cupressus sempervirens with hard durable wood and dense dark foliage.
- damascene
- The damson, a small black or dark purple plum.
- decemvir
- A member of one of the two bodies of magistrates appointed in 451 and 450BC to draw up a code of laws and were temporarily entrusted with the government of Rome.
- defluxion
- The supposed flow of 'humours' to a particular part of the body in certain diseases; the running of the nose and eyes, the catarrh etc. accompanying a cold or inflammation.
- denizen / denison
- A foreigner admitted to residence and certain rights in a country. In Jacobean England the king's Scottish
courtiers were obliged to be admitted by royal letters patent before they could enjoy the rights of citizenship in England.
- diascordium
- A medicine made of the dried leaves of Teucrium Scordium and many other herbs.
- digladiation
- Fighting or fencing with swords.
- disinherison
- The action of depriving of or cutting off from an inheritance or the fact of being so disinherited.
- disme
- A tax of one tenth paid to the church or a temporal ruler.
- dortoir
- The sleeping room or dormitory in a monastery.
- dotation
- An endowment or the act of endowing.
- droumy
- Turbid, muddy.
- ducat
- A name used of gold coins of varying values issued in various European countries. The name may originate from the
inscription on the Venetian zecchino d'oro first struck in 1284.
- elench
- A syllogism in refutation of a proposition that has been syllogistically defended; by extension, a logical refutation.
- embase
- To lower in dignity.
- embassage
- The sending or dispatch of ambassadors; the mission entrusted to an ambassador; the tenure in office of an ambassador.
- embossment
- A projection.
- encomiast
- One who composes or pronounces an encomium; a praiser, eulogizer, flatterer.
- enucleating
- Extracting the kernel from.
- ephemerides
- Records of daily occurrences.
- equinoctia
- The two periods of the year in spring and autumn when the days and nights are equal in length.
- equipollent
- Equal in power, effectiveness or validity.
- escuage
- The chief form of feudal tenure, in which personal service in the field was required for forty days each year.
- escutcheon
- A shield bearing a coat of arms.
- estate
- State, government - hence business of estate, matters of estate: State affairs; estates of men: orders, professions, social hierarchy.
- estivation
- The passing or spending of summer; a summer retreat or residence.
- estuation
- To boil or heave, to surge up like the tide.
- exulceration
- An ulcerated place or sore.
- fallax
- Fallacy
- falling-sickness
- Epilepsy
- female-ward
- A feudal heiress whose land, person and marriage were under the control of a guardian
until she came of age.
- flight-shot
- The distance to which an arrow is shot.
- flos Africanus
- A type of marigold.
- flower-de-luces
- Botanically an iris; heraldically a lily, best known as having been part of the royal arms of France.
- freeholder
- One who holds property in fee-simple, fee-tail or for term of life. On death an estate
held in fee simple passed by inheritance to the common law heir.
- frettellaria
- A genus of liliaceous plants, of which the best known species are the crown imperial and the common fritillary or snakeshead.
- fripper
- A dealer in secondhand clothes.
- funambulo
- A tightrope walker.
- galley-slave
- One condemned to work at the oar in a galley, the low flat-built vessel
propelled by oars and sails formerly common in the Mediterranean. It was regarded regarded as a particularly harsh form of slavery.
- galliard
- A quick and lively dance in triple time.
- gallipot
- A small earthen glazed pot, commonly used by apothecaries for ointments and medicines.
- gaudery
- Gaudy or showy decoration, ostentatious show.
- gilliflower
- From the Old French word for clove, applied to native plants having flowers scented like a clove, especially
the clove-scented pink.
- gingle
- A jingling bell or anything that produces a similar sound.
- ginniting
- A kind of apple, whose fruit was ready to eat in June.
- grammar-school
- A school for teaching Latin. Although they existed in medieval towns, large numbers
were founded in provincial towns in the sixteenth century.
- grot
- A grotto; a cave, often artificially created, that is picturesque and forms an agreeable retreat.
- halberdier
- A soldier armed with a halberd, a combination of a spear and a battle-axe.
- hand-mill
- A grinding mill consisting of one millstone turned upon another by hand.
- harquebus
- A portable gun, varying in size from a small cannon to a musket. When used in the field it was supported upon a tripod or trestle.
- hearse-like
- Mournful, funereal.
- herba muscaria
- The grape hyacinth.
- heteroclite
- Something or someone that deviates from the ordinary rule; an anomaly.
- hieroglyphics
- The form of writing used by the ancient Egyptians, consisting of figures of objects directly or figuratively representing words or syllables.
Bacon's contemporaries applied the term to other writing systems, such as that of the Aztecs and Chinese.
- hollyoak
- The holm-oak or evergreen oak Quercus Ilex.
- horse-leech
- Literally, an aquatic sucking worm and figuratively a rapacious, insatiable person.
- house-dove
- A tame dove or pigeon, kept in a dove-house.
- household-stuff
- The goods, utensils, vessels etc. belonging to a household; the furniture of a house.
- huke
- A kind of cape or cloak with a hood.
- illaqueation
- The action of catching or entangling in a noose or snare, hence entrapping in argument.
- impawning
- Putting in pawn, pledging as security.
- impoisoner
- One who kills by poison. Richard III was rumoured to have poisoned his wife Anne Neville in 1485, to
enable him to marry his niece, Elizabeth of York.
- impostume / imposthumation / impostumation
- An abscess or festering swelling.
- impuissance
- Impotence, powerlessness, weakness.
- inoculation
- The insertion of a bud of one plant under the bark of another in order to propagate the bud on the stock plant.
- Janizary
- One of a body of Turkish infantry, who constituted the Sultan's guard and the bulk of the standing army.
- jointure
- The holding of property to the joint use of a husband and wife for life or in tail, as a provision for the latter in the event of her widowhood.
- jurisconsult
- One learned in the civil law.
- kalendar
- A list or register.
- Kings Bench
- The supreme court of common law in England, which sat at Westminster.
- knee-timber
- Timber having a natural angular bend, suitable for joining other timbers in shipbuilding or carpentry.
- knight-errant
- A knight of medieval romance who wandered in search of adventures and opportunities for deeds of bravery and chivalry.
- knight-bachelor
- A young knight, too young or lacking sufficient vassals to display his own banner, who therefore followed the banner of another.
- laver
- A basin or jug, usually of metal, used for washing.
- liege
- The superior to whom feudal allegiance and service is due.
- liege-man
- A vassal sworn to the service and support of his superior lord, who in return was obliged to afford him protection, etc.
- lieger
- A resident ambassador, who permanently represents his government, as opposed to extraordinary ambassador sent with a specific mission.
- lilium convallium
- Lily of the valley.
- limned
- Illuminated.
- marish
- Marshy
- marriage-money
- The money or property the wife brings her husband, the dowry.
- master-reach
- Superior capacity, greater penetration.
- melocoton
- A peach grafted on a quince.
- merchant-stranger
- A foreign or alien trader.
- mere-stone
- A stone set up as a landmark.
- mezereon-tree
- The low shrub Daphne Mezereon, which has purplish or rose-coloured flowers and red berries.
- mintman
- One engaged or skilled in coining.
- mirabilary
- One who deals in the marvellous.
- mithridatum
- A composition of many ingredients mixed with honey or similar to make a conserve or paste, regarded as a universal antidote or preservative against poison and infectious disease.
- moil
- Labour, toil.
- monoculos
- A one-eyed being.
- Morano
- A Morisco or member of the Moorish population in Spain. Nominally Christian from 1499, when Granada was reconquered, many continued to hold Islamic beliefs. The Moriscos were expelled from Spain in1606.
- morigeration
- Obedience, compliance, deference to superiors.
- mort-pays
- Pay continued in the name of a soldier or sailor actually dead or discharged, and appropriated by the officer.
- murrey
- A purple-red colour, like that of the mulberry.
- muster-roll
- An offical list of the officers and men in an army.
- necromancer
- One who claims to communicate with the dead; more generally, a wizard, magician, wonder-worker or conjurer.
- non-claim
- A failure or neglect to make a claim within the time limited by law.
- non-significant
- A sign, symbol or statement that is not significant.
- oe
- A spangle or small round disc.
- oppignorate
- To pawn or pledge.
- orange-tawny
- Tan-coloured or brownish-yellow with a tinge of orange. Also used for a fabric of that colour.
- oyer and terminer
- A commission directed to the king's judges, serjeants and others, empowering them to hear and determine indictments on specified offences,
such as treasons, felonies, etc. Special commissions were granted following rebellions.
- pasquil
- A lampoon pasted up in a public place or widely circulated.
- pesterous
- Troublesome.
- phthisic
- A wasting disease of the lungs, the term was also applied more generally to various lung or throat infections.
- pilling
- Plundering, robbing, spoilation.
- pismire
- Ant
- point
- A piece of lace used as a kerchief or the like.
- postilled
- Annotated.
- presbytery
- The system of church government by ministers and elders, which was established in Scotland after the Reformation.
This contrasted with the episcopal government of the English church.
- pretermit
- Not to notice, mention or include.
- pretorian
- Having power analogous to that of a Roman prætor; of or belonging to the body-guard of a Roman military commander or of the emperor.
- privado
- An intimate private firend or confidant.
- proyn
- To prune.
- puling
- A whining, plaintive piping.
- puncto
- A small point of behaviour.
- purgament
- That which is removed or rejected in the process of cleansing, especially that which is excreted by an animal.
- purgatory
- In Roman Catholic belief, a state in which souls suffer for a time, to cleanse their sins. The concept was abolished
by the Protestant reformers as having no biblical justification.
- purprise
- A precinct or enclosure.
- quadlin
- The codling apple, which was suitable for cooking rather than eating raw.
- quech
- To flinch or cry out.
- questmonger
- One who made a business of conducting inquests or official enquiry.
- quincuple
- Fivefold.
- rabbins
- The chief Jewish authorities on matters of law and doctrine.
- rampier
- Rampart
- redargution
- Confutation
- referendary
- A referee, to whom a matter in dispute is referred for a decision.
- reiglement
- The act of regulating or controlling.
- reluctation
- Used by Bacon to mean both struggle or resistance and reluctance or unwillingness.
- renvoy
- To send back.
- resiance
- Abode, residence
- rheum
- A mucous discharge caused by taking cold.
- ribes
- Currants (red, black or white).
- runagate
- A vagabond.
- sarza
- Sarsaparilla, the dried root of which was used medicinally.
- satyrian
- A name given to various kinds of Orchis.
- scalado
- Scaling-ladder
- school-divine
- One of the succession of writers from about the 9th to the 14th century, who treat of logic, metaphysics and theology as taught in the universities of Italy, France, Germany and England.
- sea-calf
- Seal
- sea-mark
- A conspicuous object distinguishable at sea which serves to guide or warn sailors.
- seel
- In falconry to put a hood upon and, hence, to prevent from seeing, to hoodwink.
- seeling
- The wooden lining of the roof or walls of a room.
- sessions-house
- A building in which the quarter sessions of the justices of the Peace were held.
- sheriffwick
- The office of sheriff.
- sindon
- A long strip of cloth used as a garment or wrapping.
- sol
- A French coin equal to twentieth part of a livre.
- spang
- A small glittering ornament; a spangle.
- spial
- A spy or scout.
- spinosity
- Thorniness, and, hence, difficult, impenetrable.
- star-chamber
- A court developed in the 15th century from the judicial sittings of the King's Council in the Star Chamber at Westminster. The court was an instrument
of the executive independent of the common law courts. It was abolished by the Long Parliament in 1641.
- stellionate
- Fraud, especially the conveyance of the same numerical right to a number of different parties.
- stirp
- The stock of a family; the descendants of a common ancestor.
- stock-gilliflower
- The plant Matthiola incana, so called as having a woody stem in distinction from the clove-gillyflower.
- stond
- Impediment, stoppage.
- sugar-man
- The owner of a sugar plantation.
- surd
- Conveying no sense, meaningless.
- Switzer
- Swiss
- tallage
- A tax levied upon feudal dependents by their superiors.
- taratan
- A herald; the word suggests the flourish of a trumpet.
- tedder
- The radius of one's field of action.
- tenancy
- Occupancy of lands or tenements under a lease. A tenant for years
had a tenancy of fixed length. A tenancy for lives was for the indefinite duration of
the lives of a number of particular people. A tenant at will held a lease during the pleasure of the lessee.
- tennis
- The game known to Bacon is now known as real tennis. It was played with a racket by two players in an enclosed court, specially constructed for the purpose.
A simpler form of the game, played in the open air and using the palm of the hand, was known as field tennis.
- tenuity
- Thinness of form or size.
- terrene
- Earthly
- theomachy
- A striving or warring against the will of God.
- timber-man
- A man who supplies or deals in timber.
- tippet
- A cape or short cloak, often with hanging ends.
- tipstaff
- A staff with a tip or badge of metal, carried by an official as a sign of authority.
- treacle
- A medicinal compound of many ingredients, originally a salve, considered particularly useful against snakebites and other poisons.
- trow
- Trust, believe, think.
- turquet
- A player dressed to resemble a Turk.
- typocosmy
- A method or system, intended to assist learning, in which words or terms are grouped according to types or classes.
- unwonted
- Unaccustomed
- ure
- Use, practice.
- vant-guard
- The vanguard or foremost division of an army.
- vecture
- Carriage, conveyance.
- vendible
- Saleable, marketable.
- venter
- One of two or more wives who are the sources of children to the same husband.
- vermiculate
- Worm-eaten
- vicegerent
- Something that takes the place of another. In the 17th century often applied to rulers as representatives of God.
- vizard
- A mask.
- water-camlet
- Camlet, an expensive cloth made from silk and camel hair, with a wavy or watered surface.
- water-mint
- Any aquatic plant of the labiate genus Mentha, but chiefly the Bergamot Mint (M. aquatica) or the Brook Mint (M. hirsuta).
- well-casting
- Elegant arrangement.
- whiffler
- Someone who frequently changes his opinion; a trifler.
- white-chamber / white-hall
- The room in which the king's council held its non-judicial meetings. It gave its name to the entire palace of Whitehall.
- wildfire
- A composition of highly inflammable substances, easily ignited and difficult to extinguish, used in warfare.
- winding-sheet
- A sheet in which a corpse is wrapped for burial.
- withdrawing-chamber
- A room to withdraw to, a more private chamber attached to a public room.
- withe
- A willow twig or withy.
- wont
- Custom, habit; to use habitually; accustomed.
- worldling
- One devoted to the interests and pleasures of the world, a worldly person.
- worsted
- Defeated.
- writing-table
- A thin sheet of wood, ivory etc. for writing upon, especially notes and memoranda.
- yearbooks
- The books of reports of cases in the English law-courts produced annually during several periods
from the reign of Edward II to that of Henry VIII.
- zelant
- Zealot