Budge - Bundle flax


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A SKIN used as a FUR, consisting of a LAMBSKIN with the WOOL dressed outwards. The Books of Rates include different rates for black and white Budge. The SKIN was cut into two for trading, and the small piece on the top of the head traded separately as a BUDGE POLL. In the early part of the period, budge was a popular, cheapish fur for lining garments and acting as a FACING, as indicated by entries like 'j Cittis gownes with faces of Budg' valued at £4 [Inventories (1602)].

Budge was imported in a variety of types, and in various states of preparation. Two types, the NAVARRAN from SPAIN, and the RUMNEY, probably from Greece, apparently involved the skins of the legs only, hence entries like 'Budge Navern, the hundred legs containing five score' [Rates (1657)]. Others appeared to involve the whole skin, possibly with the budge poll already removed.

OED earliest date of use: 1382 as Budge

Found described as BLACK, NAVARRAN, OLD, RUMNEY, TAWED, UNTAWED, WHITE Found describing SKIN
Found in units of PIECE Found rated by the C skin of 5 SCORE, DOZEN, HUNDRED of 5 SCORE

Sources: Inventories (early), Rates.

Budge poll

[budge polle]

The part of a LAMBSKIN that stretched up towards the head. It was often cut off and marketed separately. The entries in the early Books of Rates of 'budge polles the fur containing iiii pains in the fur' [Rates (1582)], suggests that section cut off was very small.

Not found in the OED online

Found rated by the FUR of 4 PANE or PAIR

Sources: Rates.


[budgest; bouget]

A pouch, BAG or WALLET, usually of LEATHER, obsolete except for dialect use. The contexts of examples noted in the Dictionary Archive and elsewhere suggest it was mainly used by travellers whether on horse or foot, as in 'a paire of budgetts & a sadle' [Inventories (1620)]. The example of a 'Budgett Pott' as in 'ffour Brass Kettles a Brass Pott a Kettle a Budgett Pott two Skylletts' [Inventories (1696)], is not understood, although the dictionaries do have a secondary meaning for budget as a container for liquids.

OED earliest date of use: 1432-50

Found described as for POST CHAISE Found describing POT
Found in units of PAIR

Sources: Acts, Inventories (early), Inventories (mid-period), Tradecards.


[buff-hide; buffe; buf]

Properly LEATHER made from buffalo HIDE, and by extension applied to a very stout dull-yellow leather made from OX HIDE, dressed with OIL and having a characteristic fuzzy surface. It was favoured for military use because it was believed to be proof against a PISTOL shot and could turn the edge of a SWORD [Collins (1877)]. By the eighteenth century the term had come to be used for the colour of buff, though it is not always clear whether the leather or the colour was intended.

OED earliest date of use: 1580

Found described as 'for Cushins portingale' [RATES 1582/113] Found describing HIDE, WAISTCOAT Found used to make BELT, BRIDLE, JERKIN

Sources: Inventories (early), Inventories (mid-period), Newspapers.
References: Collins (1877).

Buff coat

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, this was a sort of military JACKET or JERKIN, with or without sleeves, made of BUFF or more rarely of CLOTH [Boucher (1967)].

OED earliest date of use: 1632

Found described as OLD

Sources: Inventories (mid-period).
References: Boucher (1967).

Buff girdle

[buf girdle]

A GIRDLE made of BUFF, probably for military use, since such a girdle was usually listed with its HANGER

Found described as COARSE, GILT, Ungilt
Found in units of PAIR Found rated by the GROSS

Sources: Inventories (mid-period), Rates.


[bufft; buffette; buffett; bufait; beaufet]

A buffet, from the French term 'beaufete' or 'buffette' came into use in the sixteenth century. It seems to have been a SIDE BOARD or possibly a type of CUPBOARD with stepped stages [Gloag (1952, revised 1991)]. However, in the Dictionary Archive, it was probably more often used elliptically for a BUFFET STOOL, which, as the OED's quotations suggest, may sometimes have been covered or upholstered. Older version of the nursery rhyme had Miss Muffet sitting on a buffet. Buffets were more common in the early part of the period and had virtually disappeared by the eighteenth century.

OED earliest date of use: 1432

Found described as covered, LITTLE, LONG

References: Gloag (1952, revised 1991).

Buffet stool

[buffut stoole; buffitt stolle; buffette stoole; buffett stoole; buffet stole; buffed stool]

Its meaning is uncertain, but it was probably a form of JOINT STOOL. It has been noted frequently in the Dictionary Archive, and although it may have been shortened sometimes to BUFFET, the two were listed togetherat least once [Gloag (1952, revised 1991)].

OED earliest date of use: 1499 under BUFFET without a definition

Found described as COARSE, LITTLE, LOW

References: Gloag (1952, revised 1991).


[buffynne; buffyn; buffinge; buffine; buffen; bufeing]

A light WORSTED - TEXTILE, buffin was a variety of SINGLE - CAMLET, classed as one of the NEW DRAPERIES that were developed in the NORWICH area in the sixteenth century. Eric Kerridge suggests they were modelled on previous type introduced by Flemish weavers that used JERSEY, whereas the new ones used WORSTED. Both were manufactured in a PIECE of less than 15 YARD in length [Kerridge (1985)]; [Montgomery (1984)]. In the Dictionary Archive, they have been found associated with MOCKADO and with STUFFS. Usually they were valued very cheaply at less than 12d a yard, though when dyed black they sometimes cost nearly double that, possibly because those would have contained SILK. They seem to have gone out of fashion by 1660.

OED earliest date of use: 1572

Found in units of DOUBLE - PIECE, PIECE of 15 YARD, YARD Found rated among WROUGHT SILKs by the PIECE not above 15 YARD

Sources: Acts, Inventories (early), Rates.
References: Kerridge (1984), Montgomery (1985).

Bugle basket

[bugle baskett]

The only example in the Dictionary Archive may be found among the household linens of a rich Bewdley merchant adjacent to another BASKET described as WROUGHT [Inventories (1667)]. This context suggests it was a basket decorated with BUGLE, a type of GLASS BEAD, more usually found decorating articles of APPAREL, particularly CUFFs. Possibly the 'Bead Baskets' advertised a century later were similar [Tradecards (1765)].

Not found in the OED

Sources: Inventories (mid-period).

Bullet screw

[bullet scrue]

A BULLET screw appears only once in the Dictionary Archive amongst a list of 'Instruments for Barbers and Chirurgions' [Rates (1660)]. It was probably an alternative name for what Randle Holme called a PIERCER. This, he claimed was 'a fit toole for the takeing of Bullets proceeding from great or small gun shot' [Holme (2000)]. From his description, it seems to have been quite a complicated implement composed of a pair of toothed 'spoons' inserted into the wound to hold the bullet rigid and through which the piercer or screw was inserted to screw into the bullet and so make more certain its extraction without further cutting away of flesh. A disadvantage, which he did not acknowledge, is that it would almost certainly have left fragments of metal in the wound.

OED earliest date of use: not found as such in the OED; 1749 as Bullet drawer

Found rated by the DOZEN

Sources: Rates.
References: Holme (2000).



The OED gives one meaning of this term as the stalk or stalky part of FLAX or HEMP. Neither in this sense nor any of the other meanings given in the OED does it appear in the Dictionary Archive. With regard to its use in the Dictionary Archive, it seems more feasible that the idea of hollowness was transferred to the hollow part of a HORN that starts below the solid HORN TIP. Whilst the tips went to the turners for making things like the handles of CUTLERY, the former was used for making LANTHORN LEAF and hollow HORN WARE. The two descriptors found attached to 'bun', COUNTRY and GREEN, were both noted in the same inventory, which suggests that they were not synonymous [Inventories (1666)]. The descriptor 'country' as applied to buns may have merely been used to define those buns sent up from the country, while the GREEN buns may have come straight from London butchers. If this were the case, the country buns may have had some preliminary preparation before transportation, while the green buns would have as yet undergone no processing at all.

Not found in the OED in this sense

Found described as COUNTRY, GREEN

Sources: Inventories (mid-period).

Bundle flax

Some imported FLAX was tied up in bundles for easy transport. The bundles were very large, weighing up to a TON. Since bundle flax has been noted in quite small units such as LB, one must assume that bundle flax could retain its name even after the bundle had been broken up in the same way as FADGE FLAX and KIRTLE FLAX.

Not found in the OED

Found in units of HUNDRED, LB

Sources: Inventories (mid-period).