Slang in history: London language in 16th and 17th century

Here is a short list of words and expressions used in Elizabethan's London.

  Argent, bit, cross, lowre - coin, cash

  abroad - out of doors

  amulet - omelette

  artificer - skilled workman

  Barbary - North Africa

  bellman - nightwatchman

  blue-coat - a servant

  brabble - quarrel

  bong, bung - purse, pocket

  broadsword - heavy old-fashioned sword for slashing

  cant, peddler's french - criminal slang

  cullis - meat broth

  cuttle - knife

  derrick - a hangman

  foister - a pickpocket

  french marbles - venereal disease

  garnish - a bribe given to a prison officer

  green goose - goose under four months old

  higgler - pedlar

  jakes - a privy

kickshaw - fancy snack, from French quelquechose (something)

laystall - a dung-heap or midden

napery - table linen

nipper - a cutpurse

nunchion - snack between meals

ordinary - eating house, with the fixed price, set meal

paled - fenced

pippin - apple grown from the seed

potboy - youth employed to clear away in a tavern

poor John - salted hake

rear-banquet - late night snack

sack - sherry

shoulder-clapping - arrest

stew - a brothel

sucket - sweet e.g. sugar-plum

traffic - whore

trull - person of low character

ware-bench - shop counter

winchester goose - whore

zany - a clown