Gargantua, large-mouthed giant in Rabelais

garland, royal crown, glory

garnish, dress; to adorn, equip

gaskins, breeches

gaud, plaything, showy ornament; to ornament

gear, stuff, talk, matter, business

geck, dupe

gender, kind, sort, offspring; engender

generosity, high birth

generous, high-born

genius, spirit, good or bad angel, embodied spirit

gentle, of noble birth; to ennoble

gentry, rank by birth, good breeding, courtesy

George, jewel bearing figure of the saint, part of insignia of Order of the Garter

germen, seed

gest, deed, time allotted to stage of journey

gesture, bearing

ghasted, frightened

ghastness, terror

ghastly, spiritual

gig, whipping-top

giglet, wanton

gimmaled, jointed, hinged

ging, gang

gird, gibe; taunt, besiege

glance (at), hint at, cast a slight on

glass, mirror, sand-glass

glaze, stare

gleek, gibe; to gibe, jest

glib, castrate

gloss, lustre

glut, swallow

go, walk

God-a-mercy, thank God

God’s me, God bless me

go to! expression of disapproval, protest, or disbelief

goatish, lustful

good, financially sound, rich

good-brother, brother-in-law

goodman, husband, yeoman, master

goose, smoothing iron

goose of Winchester, prostitute

gorbellied, fat-bellied

gore, to defile, wound

gorge, what has been swallowed

gorget, piece of armour for the throat

Gorgon, woman whose look turned the beholder to stone

gossip, god-father or -mother, sponsor; make merry

gourd, kind of false dice

gout, drop

government, control, self-command, evenness of temper

grained, ingrained, showing grain of the wood, lined, forked

gramercy, thank you

grange, outlying farmhouse

gratify, thank, reward, pay, do honour to

gratulate, pleasing; greet, express joy at

gravel, urinary crystals

greasily, obscenely

grece, step, stair, degree

gree, agree

grief, grievances

grieve, vex, taunt

groat, fourpenny piece

groundlings, those who stood in the cheapest part of the theatre

grow, be or become due

guard, caution, border, trimming; to ornament

guidon, pennant

guiled, treacherous

guinea-hen, prostitute

guise, custom, habit

gules, red (heraldry)

gull, unfledged bird, dupe, fool, trick; to cheat

gummed, stiffened with gum

gust, taste, relish

Guy, Guy of Warwick, slayer of the giant Colbrand

gyve, fetter

habit, dress, appearance

habitude, temperament

hackney, prostitute

haggard, wild hawk

haggle, to hack, gash

hag-seed, child of a witch

hai, home-thrust in fencing

hair, kind, character

halcyon, kingfisher

half, partner

half-blooded, of noble blood by one parent only

half-cheek, profile

half-cheeked, with a piece missing or broken on one side

half-face, thin face

half-faced, showing half the face

half-sword, half a sword’s length

halidom, holy relic

Hallowmas, All Saints’ Day, I November

handfast, firm hold, marriage contract

handicrafts, artisans, workmen

handy-dandy, choose which you please (in a children’s game)

haply, perhaps, by chance

happiness, handsomeness, appropriateness, opportunity

hardiment, bold exploit

hardness, difficult, hardship

harlot, man or woman of promiscuous life

harlotry, harlot, silly wench

hatch, engrave, inlay, lower half of a divided door

hatchment, memorial tablet with coat of arms

hautboy, shawm, woodwind instrument, ancestor of the oboe

havoc, devastation; cry havoc, give the signal to an army to plunder

hazard, game at dice, chance, venture

head, headland, topic, army

head borough, parish officer

heap, crowd

heavy, important, dull, sluggish, sleepy, grievous

hectic, wasting fever

Hector, Trojan hero

Hecuba, Queen of Troy, wife of Priam and mother of Hector

hedge-pig, hedgehog

Helen, most beautiful woman of her world, wife of the Greek Menelaus, carried off to Troy by Paris

Helicon, mountain of Greece sacred to the Muses

hemp-seed, gallows-bird, one born (or deserving) to be hanged

Hercules, as a baby strangled two serpents; performed twelve great labours, including the obtaining of the golden apples of the Hesperides and the overcoming of Cerberus, the three-headed dog of the underworld

Hero, see LEANDER

Hesperus, the evening star

hest, command

heyday, excitement

high-crested, proud

high-lone, quite alone, without support

high-proof, in the highest degree

high-stomached, haughty

hight, called

hilding, contemptible, good-for-nothing, baggage

him, male (dog)

hint, occasion, reason, opportunity

hipped, lame in the hip

hit, succeed, agree

hive, hive-shaped hat

hoar, grow mouldy

hobby-horse, figure of a horse used in morris dances, etc., buffoon, prostitute

holding, consistency, burden of a song

holp, helped

honest, worthy, virtuous, chaste

honesty, honour, decency, chastity

honour, chastity

hoodman-blind, blind man’s buff

horn, the mark of a cuckold

horn-book, child’s first reader

horn-mad, ready to gore the enemy, enraged at being cuckolded

hose, stockings, breeches

host, lodge

hot-house, brothel

housekeeper, householder, watch-dog, stay-at-home

housekeeping, hospitable running of the household

hox, hamstring

hoy, a small vessel

hugger-mugger, secrecy

hull, float, drift with sails furled

humorous, moist, capricious, moody

humour, moisture; bodily fluid supposedly composed of blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy, the proportions determining personal temperament; temperament, mood, whim, caprice, inclination

Hungarian, hungry, needy

hunt’s-up, morning-song to arouse huntsmen

hurly, commotion, uproar

hurricano, waterspout

hurry, commotion, disorder

hurtless, harmless, unhurting

husband, one who keeps house; to farm, till

husbandry, management, thrift

Hybla, mountain in Sicily famous for fragrant flowers and honey

Hydra, many-headed snake whose heads grew again as they were cut off

Hymen, god ofmarriage

Hyperion, sun god

Icarus, see DAEDALUS

idea, image