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A type of fabric for which one example has been noted.
places Huddersfield
dates 1755

Copper plated with silver.
places Sheffield
dates 1743 1796

Occupational term for craftsmen working in silver.
places Sheffield
dates 1641

To rinse or wash out, a regional word.
places Halifax
dates 1664

A fine, thin fabric of linen; a kind of cambric or muslin.
places Harpham York
dates 1257 1300 1380 1393

The wafer used in the celebration of the mass.
dates 1453 1490 1524 1567

A spiked nail, probably the smallest of the three types on record.
places York
dates 1504 1543-1544

To excavate a vertical shaft.
dates 1599 1672 1708 1819

A pit into which water or waste matter might flow, serving as a drain, sewer, or sump.
dates 1524 1527 1641 1648

This was the occupational term for the men who dug the early pit shafts.
places Tong
dates 1760

The circular board which compresses the curds in the cheese vat.
dates 1579 1593 1676

This element occurred in a variety of compound terms which described the implements used by sinkers.
dates 1666 1713 1727 1736 1754 1815

A place-name near Holmfirth.
places New Mill
dates 1545 1684

The stone basin of a font, from which water could be drained.
places York
dates 1432 1445

To drain or leak, a dialect word that is still in use.
places Selby Strensall
dates 1503 1519

Apparently a diminutive of ‘sop’, a small piece of bread, often toasted or fried, used to garnish or accompany soups and stews.
dates 1683

An alternative spelling of cypress which has two distinct origins and meanings. It was the name of rich textile fabrics which were apparently imported from or via Cyprus.
dates 1398 1402 1419

spellings sithen sithence
Obsolete forms of ‘since’.
dates 1487 1515 1525 1607

From the fourteenth century, nails began to be classified according to the original price per hundred, but when prices changed such terms were more an indication of size.
places York
dates 1524 1538 1544

A toll paid on bringing fish called skates into the market.


A species of bearded oats.
dates 1637 1658 1674

Of uncertain meaning.
dates 1555

A stall in a cow-house.
dates 1362 1456-1457 1570 1571

A form of skell-boose.
dates 1577 1634 1642

A type of knife or dagger, traditionally associated with Ireland and Scotland.
places Kendal
dates 1578


The amount it took to fill a skep.
places York
dates 1579

Irregularly marked with white and brown or red, or some similar colour, used especially of horses.
places Thurlstone
dates 1647

This is a dialect form of ‘shift’, that is to move.
dates 1479 1523 1750-1799

A cooking utensil, typically made of brass or copper, which had three or four feet and a long handle, used for boiling and stewing.
dates 1520 1669 1676

Wool taken from the skin of a dead sheep.
places Carlton
dates 1669

From an Old French word for a fencing-master which survived as the surname Scrimgeour (R&W).
dates 1202 1298

Of uncertain meaning.
places York
dates 1272

An outlying piece of land, away from the main holding.
places Ossett
dates 1697

A rare term, defined by William Hooson in 1747 as coal which ‘bounds and limits’ the seam.
places Huddersfield
dates 1845

A ‘skitterick’ was a stream which served as an open sewer, and it derives from two Old English words meaning ‘excrement’ and ‘ditch’.
places Wakefield
dates 1313 1533 1688

A dialect spelling of ‘shoat’, a young weaned pig.
places Slaidburn
dates 1621

To shout or cry out, a regional form of shriek.
dates 1597 1666 1686

A verb meaning to dress timber, that is by removing the bark and possibly some of the sap wood.
places Bradford
dates 1719-1720

A hollow, depression, or shallow area between two stretches of rising ground.
dates 1205-1211 1331 1541 1562 1697

spellings sleck (2)
A term for small or refuse coal, recorded from c.1440.
places Whitkirk Elsecar
dates 1683 1773 1775 1792

spellings slacking trough
A northern word for the water trough in which a smith cooled or 'slaked' heated metal.
dates 1445 1613 1638

In general a shallow valley, or an open space between wooded slopes, although the exact meaning often depends on the regional context.
places Easingwold Alne
dates 1617

Refuse matter separated from the metal in the smelting process.
dates 1427 1572 1721

Impurities which resulted from the preparation of alum.
dates 1651

A thin strip of land.
places Farnley Tyas
dates 1806

This survives as a place-name in the Huddersfield area, in Fixby, Kirkburton and Linthwaite, descriptive in all three cases of a linking lane or road which ascends a hill directly and obliquely.
places Austonley
dates 1516

Probably a dealer in slate-stone.
dates 1332

The peg which passed through a hole at the top end of a stone slate, thereby securing it behind the laths on a roof. Formerly the pins were made of wood or bone.
dates 1410-1411 1648 1705 1733 1740

The thin ‘flags’ of sandstone which were used as a roofing material in many parts of Yorkshire.
dates 1298-1299 1392-1393 1395 1400 1475-1476 1608

Of uncertain meaning.
dates 1532

A local glossary has the following definition: ‘an instrument used in weaving to keep the threads straight. It also acts as a support to the shuttle as it runs, and, on being pulled to the piece, it drives the threads of the woof closer together’.
dates 1498 1559 1602

A maker of slays, that is the wooden instrument used in weaving to beat up the weft.
dates 1379 1389 1602 1754-1758

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0