Medieval Language

Elizabeth Rose

If you lived in medieval times and someone offered you stew, you wouldn’t be getting food. But if they offered you coffyn, you would.

Not all readers are familiar with medieval terms, so I thought a little brush-up would be fun before you pick up another book set in the Middle Ages.

A stew is actually a brothel of women, while a coffyn is the pastry around a pie. Next time you read about the hero jumping on his destrier anon, you’ll be sure to know he mounted his “warhorse” “at once.”

If you lived back then, you wouldn’t want to address a man by knave or sirrah, and don’t call a woman wench unless you desire to be rude or disrespectful. Aye is of course “yes,” and Nay is “no,” hither is “here” and thither is “there,” but did you know that yon is “that?” Don’t feel shandy or addle-pated (stupid) if you don’t understand the language at first, as you’ll get used to it the more you read and it’ll become second nature after awhile.

The way they cursed back then was a little different too. Of course, they had some of the four letter words we use today, but since they were very religion oriented, they tended to curse by saying “God’s eyes, God’s wounds, God’s nightrobe, or any other posession or body part such as tongue and toes, or By the rood (cross).

Cornettes were not brass instruments, but two-pointed headdresses worn by the women. And a horn wasn’t used for entertainment, but rather to drink out of – as it was a drinking vessel made from the horn of an animal. A tankard was a tub-like vessel to carry water in the early Middle Ages, and later became a tall one-handled drinking mug. A tumbler was not an acrobat but rather a round bottom or pointed drinking vessel that couldn’t be put down easily. And if someone talked about blackjack, they didn’t want to play cards, but wanted a large leather jug covered in tar used to drink beer.

A butler’s job back then wasn’t to open doors, but rather to buy and store the supplies. A chandler made candles, usually from animal fat or tallow. The steward (not the brothel-owner, that’s the stewholder) was the one who oversaw the castle and demesne, (land held directly by the lord). A dresser wasn’t a place to keep clothes, but rather the person who arranged the food on the serving platters. The reeve was the man who collected the taxes for the lord and mingled and watched over the lord’s serfs and villeins (people who owed labor to a lord.)

Sweetmeats were not meat at all, but actually dried fruit. Mead was a fermented honey drink and trenchers were actually old stale bread that served as a plate and was later given to the beggars outside the castle gates.

The privy was called the garderobe and the solar was the lord’s private chambers. The battlement was the wall built up around the catwalk atop the castle, and a loophole wasn’t a problem but rather an arrow-slit window used by the archers to defend against an approaching enemy.

I could go on forever, but since I don’t want to confuse anyone to the point of not wanting to read a medieval-based book, I think I’ll stop at this. So next time you sit down with a trencher of sweetmeats and a tankard of mead and a good medieval romance, hopefully you’ll understand why the hero says “God’s eyes, you’re a stubborn wench,” next time the heroine angers him!

Lady Elizabeth Rose

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