A growing assortment of words and definitions used in the Early Modern era. See the Guide for more information.
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Word
Definition
Nake
To strip, to lay bare. First used in the14th century, 500 years after the adjective naked. See nag. Also naken, to strip. One sense of naker, q.v., is one that denudes. It occurs in Chaucer and Gavin Douglas; Tourneur in THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY (1607) cries Come, be ready; nake your swords!
Syth
Satisfaction; recompense. Short for assyth. Also syith, site, syte. Also as a verb, to give satisfaction to. Sythment, satisfaction; indemnification. Mainly Scotch; Gavin Douglas' AENEIS (1513): I have gotten my heart's syte on him (explained in the glossary: 'all the evil I wish'd him').
Thring
A very common Old English verb, with the basic meaning to press, to crowd; in this sense replaced by one of its forms, throng. By development, thring came to mean: to push forward, hasten; to press hard, oppress, repress; to press together, compress; to thrust with violence, to dash, knock, hurl (down) -- also downthring, to press down, crush. Hence also, to press through, to pierce, penetrate, burst (out). A thringer, an overthrower. Also thryng. In the past tense, thrang, thrange, thronge, throng, thrungen, thrung. Of petty assemblages, Chaucer in THE ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE (1366) tells: There was many a bird singing Throughout the yerde al thringing; and Gavin Douglas in the AENEIS (1513): The damecellis [damsels] fast to thar lady thringis. In less pleasant fashion, from the same poem of Chaucer's: In his sieve he gan to thringe A rasour sharpe and wel bitinge. Rutherford in a letter of 14 March, 1637, exclaims: There is no little thrusting and thringing to thrust in at Heaven's gates.
Wanweird
Misfortune, ill fate. Used in the 16th and 17th centuries. Mainly in Scotland; Gavin Douglas in the AENEIS (1513) wrote: I tuik comfort heirof, thinkand but baid That hard wanwerd suld follow fortun glaid.
