If you’ve been a long-time reader of this blog then you already know we like to get nerdy about words around here. If you’re new, welcome! To prove the last statement is true, here’s a collection of random things from Antiquity and the Middle Ages that you see all the time but probably didn’t know the correct names for.

To make things fun, keep score of the things you already knew the names for and post your final tally in the comments. If your score is 15/20 or higher I’ll buy you a beverage. You have my word, no pun intended. Let’s begin!

#1. Orle and Tressure

If you’ve ever looked at the royal arms of the Kingdom of Scotland, or at generic medieval shields in fantasy, then you’ve seen an orle or a tressure before. The orle and tressure are both a thin border inset from the edge of a shield in heraldry, however a tressure is thinner than an orle and usually borne double.

#2. Volute

A volute is a spiral or scroll-shaped form in architecture. You see them all the time when you look at the pillars of ancient buildings, especially Corinthian pilasters or the capitals of Ionic columns.

#3. Merlon and Crenel

You see merlons and crenels, or crenelations as they’re called together, almost every time you look at a medieval castle. Merlons are the protruding part of crenelations, and crenels are the gaps in between. In movies and video games merlons are usually much smaller than they actually were in history, as they were meant to protect archers along battlements and therefore were as tall as a man.

#4. Chanfron

If you’re awesome like many people and love looking at medieval horses, then you’ve probably seen a chanfron hundreds of times. The chanfron is simply the helmet for a horse, as part of a horse’s barding. They were used as far back as ancient Greece and made a stunning reappearance in the high Middle Ages.

#5. Codex

The truth is you don’t need to look at anything ancient or medieval to see a codex. You probably see a codex everyday, as it’s simply the technical word for a book. Before the 3rd century AD, however, writings were usually stored in scrolls or tablets. Then the codex manuscript quickly gained acceptance and eventually became standard by the 8th century under Charlemagne.

#6. Plectrum

Guitar players nowadays call them picks, probably because they don’t know what they were historically called. They’re plectrums! Plectrums were used for playing string instruments across the ancient world, as we know from surviving images on Greek vases dating back to the 5th century BC. The sarod plectrum shown in figure 2 was carved from a coconut shell.

#7. Wyvern

What do you call a dragon with only 2 legs? If you guessed “dragon with 2 legs” then arguably you’re right but for the sake of my point here you’re wrong. Wyverns are 2-legged dragons commonly depicted in medieval heraldry and have made many recent appearances in fantasy. The example shown here is from the coat of arms of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.

#8. Square-rigged Sails

Square-rigged sails were used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, as well as throughout the ancient and medieval worlds. It’s the correct term for when you see sails hoisted abeam, or along the width of a ship as opposed to the length. A type of ship you might recognize that famously used square-rigged sails was the galleon.

#9. Fore-and-aft Sails

Fore-and-aft sails are what you call rigging hoisted along the length of a ship as opposed to the width. Their adoption by traditionally square-rigged vessels arose in the 15th century, inspired by the Arabian lateen rig, and allowed the Dutch and Portuguese ships that adopted them to sail where previous vessels had struggled to sail before due to how they increase the degrees in which a ship can sail into the wind.

#10. Cresset

Cressets are the metal things mounted on walls to produce light in medieval times, where movies and video games erroneously have torches. Cressets were also mounted on poles or carried, and earlier stone versions were used in churches and abbeys. The hollow bowl was filled with a slow-burning fuel like tallow or oil, and a wick inserted in the fuel could stay lit for hours, like a refillable candle.

#11. Faldstool

I included this word for anyone who likes to call modern things by their medieval names, as a faldstool is a foldable stool or chair which we see all the time nowadays. In medieval times, however, a faldstool more often referred to the portable stools bishops used when officiating outside of their own bishopric.

#12. Kabuto

We all know what katanas are, but I’d be willing to bet very few know the name for those cool samurai helmets, too. Like European armor, Japanese armor went through many developments throughout the Middle Ages. Scholars believe the kabuto was introduced during the Heian period or the 10th century.

#13. Saltpan

Have you ever walked along the ocean shore to find salt deposits in evaporated tidepools? Such saltpans occur naturally around the world, but in ancient and medieval times, like today, they were also the most practical way to harvest sea salt and would be created intentionally for business.

#14. Scrivener

You probably already know what a scribe is. But you may have also heard someone call a scrivener a scribe incorrectly without knowing it. Scribes became outdated with the invention of the printing press, but scriveners technically still exist today, even if they type on computers instead of “scriven” with a quill. While scribes copy books, scriveners record things, like dictation or civil matters. A good example is the prothonotary in Byzantium.

#15. Hamlet

You definitely know what a village is, but we’re all probably guilty of calling a hamlet a village by accident on occasion. A hamlet, in the simplest terms, is a small settlement that doesn’t have a church. Many existed throughout medieval Europe, like Greibi in the Domesday Book (modern-day Graby).

#16. Palliasse

A palliasse is something you see all the time in film, whether it’s the bedding of a fantasy dungeon in a fictional movie or the bedding of a medieval villager in a documentary. To put it short, or pull the short straw if you will, a palliasse is a bedroll made of straw or a straw-stuffed mattress, either of which were common sleeping surfaces in ancient and medieval times.

#17. Verdigris

I bet you already knew what patina was. Patina is a naturally-occurring, protective coating on metal caused by oxidation, and can occur on iron and most other metals. Verdigris, however, is the actual term for the dark greenish or blueish coating you find on bronze, brass, or copper specifically. You probably see it most times you look at an ancient or medieval bronze statue.

#18. Rowels

If you love watching King Arthur movies or playing medieval video games, then you probably see spurs all the time. But do you know what the little barbed wheels on the spurs are called? They’re the things that jingle whenever a cowboy walks across the room. Rowels! Not all ancient and medieval spurs had rowels, but many did.

#19. Caparison

I bet you see caparisons all the time even if you don’t know what the term means. Caparisons may also be referred to as trappings or the housing of a horse, and were called trappers in England before the 1500s. It’s the protective and ornamental mantle spread over a horse or other animal like elephants. While not all cavaliers could afford barding, caparisons were much more common than Hollywood would have us think, especially during the Crusades when they were heavily adopted.

#20. Gnomon

Last but not least we have the gnomon or the pointy vertical thing on sundials, which you’ve surely seen all over the place. The word gnomon comes from the Greek word gnōmōn which means “indicator”. Interestingly, sundials date as far back as 1500 BC.

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