Select one or more, then press search
Select one or more, then press search
Clear
A thatching-rod or small strip of wood.
dates 1563 1699 1798

A verb meaning to ‘bruise’ beans in a mill, a rare term noted in the OED.
places Swillington
dates 1726

A spelling of speel-bone, that the small bone of the arm or leg.
places Wakefield Idle
dates 1307 1690

Zinc, or an alloy in which zinc is the main component.
places Sheffield
dates 1720

Usually a small room where food is kept, a pantry, but in Swaledale it may have been a type of cupboard or container.
dates 1327 1574 1594 1599

As a noun this could refer to a small piece of wood, a strip of undressed leather, a trimming of hide used in making glue or size (OED).
dates 1582 1592 1609 1664 1666 1715 1770-1777

The OED has a reference to ‘speysse-bred and wine’ in 1550 and the inference is that this was richly flavoured bread or cake which contained raisins, plums, figs or the like.
places Hull Selby
dates 1320 1453 1465

Maybe a later version spice bread, it contained mace, cloves, nutmeg, currents and sugar.
dates 1589 1660 1721 1740-1749

A plate on which spices were placed.
dates 1358 1398 1399 1400 1423

A spike-nail; that is a large and strong nail.
dates 1299-1300 1323 1350-1360 1379 1446-1447

Probably for ‘spire’.
dates 1555

spellings spillwood
The term ‘spillwood’ has been explained as waste wood of little value (FWT170).
dates 1290 1301 1306 1331 1390

A coloured mark or spot on the skin of an animal.
dates 1551 1572 1618-1619 1697

A sapling, used especially of young oak and ash trees.
dates 1389 1392-1393 1421 1537 1579 1620

As a verb ‘to spire’ meant to send out a shoot; to sprout.
dates 1600-1699

A cooking device with a sharp-pointed metal rod, designed to impale pieces of meat for roasting at a fire.
dates 1380 1458 1462 1546 1612

spellings spittle (1)
Aphetic spellings of hospital.
dates 1294 1368 1443 1490 1500 1606

Sometimes a small spade (OED) but in these references an iron baking implement, a sort of peal or shovel used to remove hot loaves from an oven.
dates 1621 1698 1727

A staff with a wedge-shaped piece of iron at the end, used for cutting up weeds, especially thistles.
dates 1592 1605 1614 1731

spellings splint
Two overlapping pieces of metal armour, designed to protect the elbows in particular.
dates 1453 1510 1559

As a noun, ‘spoil’ referred initially to loot or plunder, that is the ‘spoils of war’ and it was only much later that it came to be associated with damage.
dates 1568 1608 1609 1629 1666 1699 1702 1732-1733

A form of drawing-knife, originally used for shaping and finishing spokes, chair legs, barrel staves, etc.
dates 1622 1638 1698

A wheel for winding thread onto a spool or bobbin.
dates 1615 1639 1690

Knives with horn handles burnt or 'spotted' to resemble tortoiseshell.
places Sheffield
dates 1787


A dialect spelling of speckled.
places Honley
dates 1730

A word for a spring in a lock, so possibly used also of clock springs.
places Elland Brandsby
dates 1620 1652

A young turbot or other flat fish, on record in co. Durham from 1324-5 (OED).
places Selby
dates 1416-1417

The source or head of a well, included here because of the possible confusion with spring (2).
dates 1552 1594

As a noun in a woodland context this had several related meanings. It was, for example, the young growth of trees, especially coppice trees.
dates 1390 1399 1425 1514 1599-1600 1684 1740 1743-1744 1766

spellings springer impost
The springer is the supporting stone from which an arch ‘springs’, and the two words are typically found in the same context.
dates 1579 1682 1701 1705

Possibly associated with a kind of parole system, 'to spring' someone from gaol, either by paying to have the prisoner released or to advance a sum of money to achieve freedom.
places Knottingley
dates 1724

This was the term which became popular for penknives and pocket-knives in the latter half of the seventeenth century.
places Sheffield
dates 1690

Used as a verb in an intriguing description of a poke or bag, possibly meaning to fray.
places Treeton
dates 1665

The spruce fir is not a native English tree but takes its name from Prussia, a state known in the Middle Ages as Pruce or Spruce. The wood was imported [see pruce] and probably used to make chests, coffers and the like, although such items may themselves have been imported.
dates 1429 1433 1485 1500 1519 1528 1549 1622

A prop or buttress, a short strut set diagonally to support an upright timber.
dates 1655 1707

A tub in which fermenting liquor was left to cleanse itself, throwing off impure matter.
dates 1559 1567 1568 1578

A wooden prop or stay, described by Halliwell as a support for a gatepost, and found in Lincolnshire.
dates 1500-1525 1621 1739

Notice given that the banns of marriage are to be published.
places Dodworth
dates 1726

A gear wheel with cogs or teeth on the periphery which could be attached to the axle of the water wheel (OED).
places Wakefield
dates 1731 1760

To make timber square in preparation for its use by the house builders.
dates 1418 1486 1544-1545 1619

A firework or explosive device: usually a slight explosion.
places Huby
dates 1678

spellings coal-stack
A pile or heap, commonly of farm crops.
dates 1577 1658 1659 1699 1729-1731 1739 1792 1813

A hurdle used to fence a stack in an open field.
dates 1617 1657 1658

A labourer responsible for building stacks, a word used in farming contexts.
places Elmswell Elsecar
dates 1642 1752

spellings staggarth
A regional alternative of stack-yard, an enclosure close to a farm where hay, corn, and the like might be stacked.
dates 1338 1402-1403 1546 1571 1597 1616 1642

A wooden peg or stick, used to fasten the thatch on a stack.
places Kirkburton
dates 1884

This word of Old English origin had the basic meaning of ‘foundation’, a place where something might stand.
dates 1530 1614 1642 1699

This bridge crosses the river Wiske and it is first referred to in a lease to the Prior of Mount Grace which gives the boundaries of property in East Harlsey.
places East Harlsey
dates 1508

Hay from the base of the stack, probably spoilt as animal fodder.
dates 1642 1702

Literally to herd animals with a staff in hand, that is.
dates 1530 1558 1579 1608 1615 1734

A young horse.
dates 1357 1399 1434 1514 1557 1606

An occasional spelling of ‘steg’, the regional word for a gander.
places Hambleton
dates 1637

A diminutive of ‘stag’, a young horse, probably a stallion.
places Bolton Priory
dates 1307-1308

Ornamented with coloured images, used especially of wall hangings.
places York Spaldington
dates 1410 1426 1457 1464

In York, the stainers were probably working with cloth rather than with wood.
dates 1353 1400-1499 1421-1422 1565

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0