Seeing, Storms and Madness: King Lear

Shakespearean Glossary

Alack	Alas! Unfortunately!	
Alarum	Alarm. Trumpet sound 	
Anew	Again	
Anon	Soon	
Art	Are	
Base	Low, common, not sophisticated or elegant	
Canst	Can	
Coronet	Crown	
Counsel	Give advice/advise	
Coxcomb	Fools multi-pointed hat	
Coz	Cousin	
Cur	Dog	
Dotage	Old age	
Doth	Does	
Dost	Does	
Dowry/Dower	Money paid to a husband to encourage him to marry a daughter	
E'er	Ever	
Ere	Before	
Exeunt	Exit (of more than one person)	
Flourish	Sound of trumpets	
Fut	Contraction of "God's foot" a mild oath	
Hadst	Had	
Herald	Person bringing news	
Hark	Look	
Hast	Have	
Hath	Have	
Hereafter	Afterwards	
Ho	An exclamation to gain attention	
Is't	Is it?	
Jot	a bit, a small amount	
Knave	Servant, attendant	
Mark	Take note of	
Marry	By Mary (a mild oath)	
Morrow	Morning	
Ne'er	Never	
Nuncle	Term of endearment (not necessarily implying a blood relationship)	
O'er	Over	
Oft	Often	
Prithee	I pray thee (I wish you to)	
Sirrah	Sir (to a lower social class- can be used as an insult.)	
Steward	Attendant, servant	
Suit	Case or attempt at persuading	
Ta'en	Taken	
Thee	You	
Thine	Your	
Thou	You	
Thy	Your	
To't	To it	
Twill	It will	
'tis	It is	
Sennet	Series of note heralding a royal entrance	
Severally	Separately	
Shalt	Shall	
Tarry	Wait or delay	
Thine	Your	
Thy	Your	
Wert	Were it	
Wherefore	Why?	
Whoreson	Lit: Son of a whore	
Wilt	Will it	
Wit	Understanding, intelligence	
Within	Off stage	
Woe/Wo	Bad luck	
Woo	Attempt to court	
Worthy	Honest, true, good	
Zounds	God's Wounds (an oath, pronounced zwounds.)	

© Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand (First published 1998)