Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Thirty-Eight

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

Bragget

The dictionary defines this as “mead and ale sweetened with honey”, which seems to have been a common word at the time, derived from the medieval word ‘brag’ meaning malt. The drink was sweet, and often had spices added to it, with the word also being spelt ‘braggot’ or ‘braket’.

Chaucer used the word as early as the fourteenth century, but it has pretty much fallen out of use now.