Tudor & Stuart Words and Insults

From the first printed dictionaries to Shakespeare's stage: the words first recorded between 1500 and 1713.

Shown: The Harvesters — Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565 · The Met, public domain

c. 1520(as a coin)Dandipratinsult · nounOriginally the name of a small 16th-century English coin (valued at three halfpence (Green's), though some dictionaries say about twopence); by 1556 it is also recorded for a little or insignificant person: a small boy, a dwarf, or a contemptible fellow (how the senses are connected is uncertain).
1520s(as a scholars' jibe)Dunceinsult · nounNamed after the Scottish philosopher John Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308). In the 1520s–30s Renaissance humanists mocked his followers ('Duns men') as hair-splitting opponents of new learning; by the 1560s–70s a dunce was simply a slow, dull-witted person.
c. 1529(as the jester's cap)Coxcombinsult · nounA vain, conceited man. From the 1570s — named after the cock's-comb cap worn by professional jesters.
before 1529Gorbelliedinsult · adjectiveBig-bellied, fat, pot-bellied; used as a jeer at well-fed, prosperous people ('gorbellied knaves').
c. 1529Poltrooninsult · nounAn utter coward; a mean-spirited, spineless wretch. Borrowed from French, from Italian poltrone, 'idler, coward'.
1530Mumpsimusinsult · nounA person who clings to an old error even after it has been pointed out, or the stubbornly repeated error itself. It comes from a joke about a priest who misread the Latin 'sumpsimus' ('we have taken') as 'mumpsimus' and refused to correct it.
1532Blockheadinsult · nounA stupid person, someone with no more brains than a wooden block (the head-shaped block used by hat- and wig-makers). At first it could also mean the wooden head itself.
1540Hobbledehoyinsult · nounA clumsy, gawky youth at the awkward age between boy and man.
by 1556Lickpennyword · noun (also adjective)Something that 'licks up' your pennies — a thing or place that makes money vanish. The classic use is 'London lickpenny': the city that drains a visitor's purse. Later it could also mean a greedy, grasping person (Century Dictionary); Wiktionary also gives 'a miserly person'.
1560sMooncalfinsult · nounA foolish or absent-minded person. The gentle modern meaning of a word that began, in the 1560s, as a term for a shapeless growth blamed on the moon.
1568Curmudgeoninsult · nounAt first a grasping, churlish miser; today a bad-tempered, stubborn person, usually an older man. Its origin is unknown; the old 'coeur méchant' (wicked heart) and 'corn merchant' explanations are rejected.
1568Tosspotinsult · nounA heavy drinker, one who 'tosses off' his pot of ale; a drunkard. In modern British and Irish slang it has become a general insult for a fool.
1575by Joveoath · interjection (phrase)An exclamation of surprise or emphasis. Originally a real oath by Jove (Jupiter, chief of the Roman gods); it then served as a safe stand-in for 'by God', and became a stock phrase of the Victorian and Edwardian English gentleman.
1588Sauceboxinsult · nounA saucy, cheeky, impudent person, someone always ready with a pert remark. Later slang also used it for the mouth.
by 1590Ninnyhammerinsult · nounA fool or simpleton; an extended form of 'ninny'. What the '-hammer' adds is unclear (one tentative suggestion is dialect 'hammer', a clumsy person, or to stammer).
1592Jobbernowlinsult · nounA stupid person, a blockhead; also a mocking word for a big, thick, stupid-looking head. Probably from old 'jobard' (a simpleton) plus 'noll' (the head).
by 1592zoundsoath · interjectionAn exclamation of anger or surprise. It is a softened (minced) form of the oath 'God's wounds!', referring to the wounds of Christ on the Cross.
1595Loggerheadinsult · nounA thick-headed, stupid person; a blockhead. Probably from dialect 'logger', a heavy block of wood, plus 'head'. Later also a large head, an iron tool, and (from the 1650s) a turtle; 'at loggerheads' (quarrelling) dates from the 1670s.
c. 1597'sbloodoath · interjectionAn old oath of anger or astonishment, short for 'God's blood', referring to the blood of Christ. The initial 'S is all that is left of 'God's'.
c. 1597Fustilarianinsult · nounA comic insult, apparently a one-off coinage: a fusty, stinking, low fellow. It seems to be built on 'fusty' (musty) or 'fustilugs' (a fat, frowzy person).
c. 1600(as “God's bodykins”)odsbodikinsoath · interjectionAn archaic exclamation of surprise. It is usually explained as softening 'God's body': 'ods' disguises 'God's' and 'bodikins' is a pet form of 'body' (Farmer & Henley: 'God's little body'). A minority view reads 'bodkins' as the nails of the Cross.
c. 1600Tatterdemalioninsult · nounA ragged, tattered person; a ragamuffin. The ending is a made-up flourish (early spellings rhyme it with 'Italian'). From the 1610s it is also an adjective, 'ragged, tumbledown'.
1601Addlepateinsult · nounA muddle-headed, foolish person. 'Addle' first meant liquid filth and then a rotten egg that will not hatch, so an addlepate has a head as empty and spoiled as an addled egg.
1601Clotpoleinsult · nounA thickhead or blockhead: literally a head ('poll') made of a clod of earth. Shakespeare also uses 'clotpoll' simply for a head.
by 1604Fustilugsinsult · nounShared today as 'a clumsy, slovenly person'. In the old dictionaries it was harsher: a big-boned person, and especially a fat, gross or bad-smelling woman.
c. 1610Bedswerverinsult · nounAn unfaithful partner. Coined, as far as the record shows, by Shakespeare in The Winter's Tale — for a woman who was innocent.
1610sSlubberdegullioninsult · nounA slobbering, dirty, slovenly fellow; a worthless wretch. Built on 'slubber' (to smear, to do things sloppily) with a fanciful ending, perhaps meant to sound French (the ending's origin is uncertain).
1620(as 'Iolter-head')Jolterheadinsult · nounA big, heavy head, and so a thick-headed, stupid person; a blockhead. An expanded form of the Tudor insult jolthead.
by 1623Hog-grubberinsult · nounA mean, stingy, sneaking person; a close-fisted miser. B.E. (c. 1698) calls one 'a close-fisted, narrow-soul'd sneaking Fellow'.
1636Clodpateinsult · nounA thickhead, a dull, heavy-witted person, often a country bumpkin: a head ('pate') no better than a clod of earth.
1648Rapscallioninsult · nounA rascal, rogue or scoundrel; a worthless, disreputable person. A fanciful stretching of 'rascal' (earlier 'rascallion').
c. 1650blatherskiteinsult · nounA person who talks a great deal of blustering nonsense; also the nonsense itself. Scottish in origin (blether 'foolish talk' + skate/skite 'contemptible fellow'); the song 'Maggie Lauder' carried it to America, where it became common 19th-century slang for a windbag or good-for-nothing.
mid-1600sgadzooksoath · interjectionA mild exclamation of surprise or annoyance. It is a condensed, softened oath, usually said to stand for 'God's hooks' (the nails of the Cross); 'Gad' is a common disguise for 'God'.
1652Gasconadeword · noun, verbBoastful talk; bluster or bravado. From French gasconnade, 'talking like a Gascon', because people from Gascony were proverbially boastful. As a verb (from 1727), to brag.
by 1653Rantipoleinsult · noun, adjective, verbA wild, rude, romping young person, boy or girl; as an adjective, wild and unruly. Grose (1785) adds 'a gadabout dissipated woman'. In some older slang it also had bawdy senses (see sensitivity note).
1664Fopdoodleinsult · nounA silly, insignificant fool. A genuinely old and now obsolete insult, built from two older words for a fool.
1669Lickspittleinsult · nounA fawning toady, a base flatterer who will lick up another's spittle to win favour. The image goes back to the older phrase 'lick (someone's) spittle', recorded in the first half of the 1600s.
1673egadoath · interjectionA mild exclamation of surprise, emphasis or annoyance. A softened oath whose second part is 'God' (as 'Gad'); the first part is uncertain — perhaps 'ah' or 'oh', or 'I'.
1670sNincompoopinsult · nounA foolish or stupid person. In English since the 1670s — and, despite the famous theory, probably not from Latin non compos mentis.
by 1675Shabbarooninsult · nounA shabby, down-at-heel, badly dressed person; by Grose's time also a mean-spirited person.
1686(as “jemminy”)Jiminyoath · interjectionA mild exclamation of surprise. It developed from the older oath 'Gemini!' and is generally explained as a disguised 'Jesu Domine' or 'Jesus'; the extended 'Jiminy Cricket' (by 1848) is likewise a euphemism for 'Jesus Christ'.
c. 1690Grumbletonianinsult · nounA chronic grumbler about the state of the country. It began around 1690 as a Court-party nickname for members of the opposition 'Country party', mocked as place-seekers sulking at the government; it punned on sect names like Muggletonian.
1697Numskullinsult · nounA dull-witted, stupid person; literally a 'numb skull', from num, an old spelling of numb. The main meaning (a stupid person) has not changed; the word has also long been used for the head itself ('a thick or muddled head'), which is the sense in the Fielding example.
by 1700(as 'shill I, shall I')Shilly-shallyword · verb, adjective, adverb, nounTo dither, hesitate or be unable to make up one's mind; a mocking reduplication of 'shall I? shall I?'. Grose gives 'to stand shilly-shally', to hesitate or stand in doubt.