Ye Olde English W'rds Trivia Quiz

Answer: Belly-timber

I asked the serving wench for a platter of BELLY-TIMBER to eat as I was hungry.

Belly-timber was an archaic word to describe food and was believed to have originated in the 17th century. It was taken to mean that food was the building material to keep the human body sustained. A gundygut or tenterbelly was a glutton, a maw-wallop was a badly cooked mess of food, zamzodden was over cooked food, and a borborygmus was a tummy rumble.

Answer: Fopdoodle

The slow-witted man was also known as the village FOPDOODLE.

Fopdoodle, hoddypeak, numskull or nincompoop have all been used to describe an idiot or simpleton. An 1828 definition of the word described fopdoodle as "an insignificant fellow", the two words taken from "fop" meaning a man fond of show, and "doodle" meaning idle.

Answer: Gardyloo

The old hag shouted "GARDYLOO" as she threw dirty water into the street from the window above.

There were no sewers in medieval England so womenfolk would throw dirty water into the streets below. This would be accompanied by a shouted "gardyloo" in case anyone was walking by. The term is believed to have originated from the French words "gare ą l'eau!" meaning, "watch out for the water!".

Answer: Bedswerver

His lordship accused her ladyship of being a BEDSWERVER because she had an affair with the stable-hand.

A bedswerver is an adulterous married woman, meaning she would swerve around the bed to avoid her wifely duties. The term was used by William Shakespeare in "The Winter's Tale" (Act 2 Scene 1) when Leontes accused his wife of having an affair with Polixenes.

"But with her most vile principal, that she's
A bed-swerver, even as bad as those
That vulgars give bold'st titles, ay, and privy
To this their late escape."

Answer: Merry-go-down

I felt tipsy and slightly inebriated after drinking a tankard of MERRY-GO-DOWN.

Merry-go-down was a strong ale. An anonymous late 15th century poem called "Wives at the Tavern" mentioned a group of gossiping women who met at a tavern without their husband's knowledge to drink ale, or merry-go-down. One of the women said she would give up her gown for her husband not to find out. This was because the practice of women drinking in a tavern was deemed unladylike.

"I know a draught of merry-go-down,
The best it is in all the town;
But yet would I not, for my gown,
My husband it wist, you may me trust!"

Answer: Mubblefubbles

The melancholic soldier suffered with MUBBLEFUBBLES so he asked his physician for some tonic.

Mubblefubbles is believed to have dated from the 16th century, and was once a name given to someone suffering with depression, melancholy or low spirits for no apparent reason. Similar words and phrases included blue devil, mulligrub and megrim. Megrim was a late Middle English word meaning migraine.

Answer: Blonk

Sir Gawain arose early one morning and ordered his squire to saddle his BLONK.

Blonk was a Middle English name given for a steed or horse, and was taken from the French word blanc, meaning white. There were many folk tales written about chivalry, of knights riding their white horses to rescue a damsel in distress. The 14th century story "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" was written by an anonymous author, since been called the "Pearl Poet", which featured the words:

"He called to his chamberlayn, žat cofly hym swared,
And bede hym bryng hym his bruny and his blonk sadel"

Which roughly translates as....

"He called to his chamberlain, who promptly answered him,
And bade him bring him his mail coat and his horse-saddle"

Answer: Snotter-clout

I started sneezing so I used a SNOTTER-CLOUT to blow my nose.

A snotter-clout was the name for a pocket handkerchief. Snot is believed to have originated from the Middle English "snotte", a word relating to the snout, or nose. A clout was a worthless piece of cloth or rag. Other words used to describe a handkerchief were snottinger and muckender.

Answer: Pilgarlic

I believe an ancestor of the actor Sir Patrick Stewart also became PILGARLIC due to alopecia.

The actor Patrick Stewart went bald at the age of 18 due to alopecia. The term pilgarlic was used from the 16th century to describe somebody bald, usually as a sign of pity due to them suffering with the pox. The word was taken from "pil" for peel and "garlic" because the bald head resembled a garlic bulb. The character Trudge from the 1787 comic opera "Inkle and Yarico" by George Colman the Younger once quoted, "Ah! poor madam Yarico! My poor pilgarlic of a master, what will become of him?".

Answer: Tuzzy-muzzy

The village girls were dancing around the maypole with a scented TUZZY-MUZZY encircling their head.

A tuzzy-muzzy was a collection or garland flowers, usually shaped like a cone, and sometimes made into a nosegay. They were worn around the head or bodice during medieval times. An alternative spelling was tussie-mussie. The small bouquet would consist of fresh and dried flowers, grasses and herbs. The word appears to date back to the 15th century when it was first recorded as "tyte tust or tusemose of flowers or othyr herbys." The "tussie" may have referred to tussock, and the "mussie" to the clump of moss used to keep the flowers fresh and damp.