Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 106

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Draper

The dictionary defines this as “an ale draper, an alehouse keeper”, the word origin is ‘draper’ meaning cloth and is usually referred to as a seller of textiles and fabrics. It gives the alehouse keeper something of an artisan feel though when used like this.

The word was used in this manner, to describe publicans, from as early as the sixteenth century, but it had started to fall out of usage by the middle of the nineteenth century.