Lairwite

In medieval England, lairwite was a fine paid by a villein to the lord of the manor after his daughter committed fornication or adultery. Also spelled leywrite, learwite, and leyrewite. Some historians, such as Zvi Razi in Life, Marriage and Death in a Medieval Parish: Economy, Society and Demography in Halesowen, 1270-1400 , contend that this statement implies an illegitimate birth; however, not all historians agree that this action always resulted in the birth of a child.

Sorner

  
A sorner was at one time a criminal.  He used force or meance to procure food or lodgings for himself.  Gradually the criminal element of it declined and the word simply came to mean one who obtruded on others – especially his relatives and so-called friends - for his bed and board; an unwelcome guest.  Quite a few sorners made appearances in P G Wodehouse's books. The word seems to have fallen into disuse which is a shame since there are still a few sorners around.

Epistemology

Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge; the study of knowledge and justified belief.

I have just come across the word in ‘Galileo's Dream’ by Kim Stanley Robinson – a brilliant book which has given me, altogether, nineteen new words and a lot of quotations.  And that is not counting a number of words in Italian or of a very scientific nature that I didn’t look up.

Cotquean

   Cotquean is an archaic word for a man who involved himself overmuch in the affairs of women or busied himself with domestic matters traditionally regarded as suitable only for women.   It was used disparagingly.
The word was also used for a coarse or scolding woman, especially a masculine one.

Give someone the cold shoulder

   The phrase to give someone the cold shoulder means to be unfriendly; treat them with disdain; or have an unwelcome attitude towards someone.

The origin may be quite simple - if you turn away from someone that dismissive movement could easily have been called the cold shoulder.  The phrase seems to date from the nineteenth century.

On the other hand there is a more romantic story.  In Victorian times and earlier the guests were given a hot meal while the servants had to make do with the cold shoulder that also servee to provide the host's tea. So if a guest arrived and was provided with the cold shoulder of mutton they were being treated with disdain.  There's no evidence to suggest this origin but it's much more fun.

Of chocolate boxes and tea boards

In my youth chocolate boxes had their lids illustrated with pretty scenes of landscapes, villages or pets.  Anne Hathaway's cottage and its pretty garden were a favourite subject.  As a result the term .   Over the years the term chocolate boxy came to be used, often pejoratively, to describe paintings that were warm, idealistic and sentimental and, by extension inferior or too pretty pretty. Yorkshire Pudding in their blog recently wrote "I went into Meekfield Wood and out the other side to another chocolate box lid hamlet called Moorhall." so the phrase is still well in use but now it tends to be used less insultingly and simpky to mean very pretty.
(Incidentally, I couldn't find a single image of a British choloate box lid from that era so they obviously weren't considered hanging on to.)

In Victorian times tea trays or teaboards were similarly decorated and they had a term with the same meaning - teaboardy - to mean art lacking merit..

Living will

   A living will is a document written by a person while still legally fit to do so, requesting that he or she should be allowed to die rather than be kept alive by artifical means if subsequentl severly disabled or suffering from a terminal illness.  The term is a modern one and has only recently made it into the Oxford English Dictionary.

Blankets - dry and wet!

The original meaning of the word blanket was a rough undyed woollen fabric used in a variety of ways. Gradually this became used primarily for a bed-covering and in the early fourteenth century the word gained its modern meaning of a large rectangular piece of woollen or similar material (often with bound edges) used as a bed covering or other covering for warmth especially a large, rectangular piece of fabric, often with bound edges.  To blanket then came to mean to cover with something and by extension the noun came to mean any extended covering or layer such as a blanket of snow.

In case of fire attempting to smother with a wetted blanket was (and remains) as effective as most things that come readily to hand.  The term wet blanket therefore acquired its modern meaning of a person who smothered the enthusiasm of others by his mood or behaviour.

Meanwhile, to be born on the wrong side of the blanket had become an oblique way of saying someone was born illegitimately. Illegitimacy has always been a special case in heraldry – indeed, it has been a special case in Western Christianity, the group of societies in which heraldry first arose.   When someone entitled to bear arms has acknowledged paternity of his 'natural children' or those “born on the wrong side of the blanket”, and has made the necessary arrangements with the heraldic authority, his illegitimate offspring would receive a grant of part of his arms ‘suitably differenced’.  This was usually thought to be by having a bar or baton across them so their arms included a “bar sinister” - a broad diagonal stripe from top right to bottom left.  In Victorian times this was held to be a terrible social disability. People from armigerous families who were of bastard descent would often forget or deny their connections in order not to be obliged to bear arms that included the said “bar sinister”.

 This drawing is by John Pottinger (1919–1986), a Scottish officer of arms, artist, illustrator and author of 'Simple Heraldry, Cheerfully Illustrated'.  He makes use of the expression “wrong side of the blanket” to produce an illustration of Campbell, Duke of Argyll, with two legitimate sons (both doing the Highland fling!), one with a label, the other with a plain blue border. Below the blanket is their illegitimate half-brother William, with a broken border and a “bar sinister” (and a filthy look to boot!).

Libertine

The modern meaning of the word libertine is a man (rarely a woman) not bound by moral laws; someone of licentious habits.  It has had this meaning since 1593. 

At one time it also meant a free-thinker, a man not aligned to a particular religion.  In relation to Roman times it means a freedman, a person manumitted from slavery or the son if a freedman. 

Pygal

   Pygal is a zoological term meaning of or pertaining to the hind quarters of an animal.  The related word pygalgia is a rarely used term meaning pain in the buttocks.  I'm sure there is a joke in there somewhere since the expression pain in the buttocks, pain in the butt and pain in the a**e are versions of the expression pain in the neck meaning a nuisance; a source of trouble or annoyance.