Colonial Dictionary
This section is an ongoing project dedicated to the words of the Colonial Era. Granted, many of these words would not be used at the local tavern, but may well have been employed in more learned circles. In addition to words used
then that are not used
now, we also include words that may still be around whose meanings have changed since early America.
Whenever possible, we try to provide a full etymological background of each entry, as well as examples of usage from then-current literature.
Though we use a wide variety of resources for this project, we'd be remiss not to mention
Dictionary of Early English by Joseph T. Shipley (Introduction by Mark Van Doren), which you can find in its entirety
HERE, readable online, or as a downloadable .pdf file...
Please
Contact Us if you have any additions (that we haven't added yet -- this
is a work-in-progress) or corrections to these entries...we hope you find this Colonial Dictionary interesting and useful.
-- The Colonial Sense Team
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| Word | Definition |
| Ness | A promontory, a cape (of land). Also naes, nesse, naisse; nase; related to nose, nese. From the 12th century to the 17th, later in Scotland, nese was used for nose; in the 15th and 16th centuries, it was also used for a headland. Also nese-end, tip of the nose; neselong, face downwards (i.e., the length of the nose) ; to nese, in the 17th century -- Jonson, THE SAD SHEPHERD, 1637-- to smell. BEOWULF has naess; Morris in THE EARTHLY PARADISE (1868) says: We stood Somewhat off shore to fetch about a ness.
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