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The Alphabetary Heraldic

Genealogical Glossary

—W—

W : [anthropology] Wi; wife.  Cf. kin types.

W : [LDS] will, an LDS Event subject to the Ordinances.

W : [NA] widow, a female claimant recognized as the widow of a veteran.

W : wages as a basis for taxation.  Cf. G, L.

W : Welsh.

w. : wife, widow.

W. Lothian : West Lothian, Scotland.

W. Meath : Westmeath, Ireland.

W. Va. : WV : West Virginia.

W.M. : Worshipful Master (of a Masonic Lodge).

W.S. : Writer to the Signet.

waftage : carriage by water or air.

wafter : a passage boat; one who conveys or wafts.

wager : venture; a bet, something pledged on chance or performance.

wages : wegen [Gm] : pay given for service.  Cf. reward.

wages for a boy : [1548] 2d per day was paid to Dingles sonne, for serving either his lord Sir Nicholas or his father the thatcher Dingle, at Hunstanton in March 1548.[1]

wages for a boy : [1592] 3s per week.[2]

wages for a skilled worker : [1603] An annual stipend for a skilled worker in the City of London during Elizabethan times ranged between £3 6s 8d and £6 13s 14d, with some additional amounts provided for maintenance.

wages for felling winnows : [1548] 6d was paid to Cunstable for the felling of whiñes at Hunstanton in March 1548.[3]

wages for digging in garden : [1548] 4d was paid to Waller of Heacham of digging in the garden at Hunstanton in September 1548.[4]

wages for weeding in garden : [1548] 6d was paid to 3 women for weeding in the garden at Hunstanton.[5]

wages for gardener : [1548] 3s 8d was paid for work in the garden and other places at Hunstanton in April 1548.[6]  Cf. wages for digging, wages for weeding.

wages for hedger : [1548] 3d per day was paid to hedgers at Hunstanton in 1548.[7]

wages for helper in malt house : [1548] 8d for 3 weeks was paid for helping in the malt house at Hunstanton in March 1548.[8]

wages for joiner : [1548] 5d per day was the rate paid to a joiner or Joyner at Hunstanton on 1548/3/3.[9]

wages for laborer : [1548] 2d per day was paid to laborers at Hunstanton in 1548.[10]

wages for laborer : [1548] 3d per day was paid for 5 days’ work to Harrye Bronne at Hunstanton in 1548.[11]

wages for mowing nettles : [1548] 4d was paid for mowing of nettles or netteles at Hunstanton in June 1548.[12]

wages for sawyer : [1548] 6d per day was the rate paid to sawyers or Sawers at Hunstanton on 1548/3/10.[13]

wages of seaman : [ante 1546] 5s per month.[14]

wages of seaman : [1546] 6s 8d was the new rate of pay instituted by Henry VIII.[15]

wages with food and drink provided : [1603] In Elizabethan times, a skilled worker could be hired in the City of London for 6d to 9d per day, if the employer provided him with food and drink.

wages without food and drink : [1603] In Elizabethan times, the daily pay for skilled worker ranged between 10d and 14d, with no extra provision of food and drink.

wagon : [Sx] a heavy carriage used to transport burdens.

wagonage : money paid for carriage in a wagon.

wài : wai : [Ch] outside; a reciprocal modifier between mother’s parents and daughter’s children.

wài xiōngdì : [Ch] FaSiSo; father’s sister’s sons; outside cousins; a term that suggests bilateral cross cousin marriage.  Cf. nèi xiōngdì.

wain : wagon, carriage.

wainage : a finding of carriages.

wainscoting : waynskotts : wainscots : wooden strips used to panel walls.  The family le Strange paid 43s 4d for 50 pieces of waynskotts, or about 10d per piece.[16]

wàishēng : [Ch] SiSo; sororal nephew.

wàishēngnŭ : [Ch] SiDa; sororal niece.

wàishēngsūn : [Ch] SiSoSo; sororal grandnephew.

wàishēngzēngsūn : [Ch] SiSoSoSo; sororal great-grandnephew.

waist : the lowest part of a ship’s superstructure.  Cf. ship proportions, Sir John Hawkins, man-of-war.

waistcoat : an inner coat that clings close to the body.

waiter : attendant, one who attends and accommodates others.

waiting gentlewoman : waiting woman, waiting maid, a high-ranking servant who attends a lady in her chamber.

waits : itinerant musicians of the night.

wake : vigil, the state of forbearing sleep; watching or attending a corpse; a feast for the dedication of a church, after which devotees kept watch through the night.

walking backwards : Cf. marcha atras.

wallflower : a species of stock-gilliflower; an allusion for a shy and demure debutante who is likely to stand near a wall during merriment.

Walter : Gualterus.

wambais : gambesons.

wand : firestick; the faggot’s rod, which may represented by a writer’s pen, director’s baton, the torch of liberty, and other such sticks, canes, or parasols.[17]

wand : vaand [Dn] : rod, staff, verge, fasces.

wander : to rove, ramble here and there; to deviate, go astray.

wanderer : rover, rambler.

wane : decline, diminution, declension; the decrease of the moon.

wapentake : a division of a riding in York; a subdivision corresponding to a hundred or ward.

war : an art of opposition based upon the three principles of war, namely (1) deployment, (2) economy, and (3) maneuver.  Deployment is the successful mustering, placement, and application of a human mass.  Economy of force is the principle of holding reserves for timely use.  Maneuvering is the effective movement of forces, along the lines of a general strategy, combined with particular stratagems or tactics.

war : werre [Du] : guerre [Fr] : hostility, an act or state of opposition; an exercise of violence under sovereign command against enemies.

war’hameh : [Cocopa] a female transvestite shaman.

ward : a subdivision in Cumberland, Northumberland, and some Scottish counties; a political division corresponding to a hundred or wapentake; a subdivision of a city used mainly for elections.

ward : watch, garrison, act of guarding; fortress, stronghold.

warden : keeper, guardian; a head officer.

Warden of the Cinque Ports : a magistrate who has jurisdiction over the principal five havens or five ports in eastern England, and has power over the ports to the same degree the Admiral of England has elsewhere.

warder : keeper, guard; a truncheon held by an officer of arms to command underlings to stop fighting.

wardrobe : garderobe : [Fr] a room where clothes are kept.

wardship : guardianship; pupillage, the state of being under a ward.

Warewichscira : Warwickshire.

warfare : a state of contest and solicitude; military service, military life.

warharmi : [Kamia] a female transvestite shaman; a term used to describe an alien chief from the north, accompanied by her two male twins, called madkwahomai.  Cf. Laguna shaman, madkwahomai.

warlock : [Sx] wizard, a male witch.

warm Bruder : [Gm] warm brother; a male homosexual.[18]

Warmbruder : [Gm] gay man.

warme Schwester : [Gm] warm sister; a lesbian.[19]

warning out : the early colonial practice of asking impoverished residents, widows, and families to leave the community before making a burden of themselves.  This convention normally applied only to newcomers who had lived in a settlement for three years or less, and persons subject to the law were usually asked to return to their place of origin.  Warning out was a practical measure, intended as a benevolence, and was justified by the harsh nature of colonial living.

warrant : garantir : [Fr] to support, maintain; to attest; to declare upon surety; to give authority; to justify; to exempt, privilege, secure.

warranter : one who gives security, one who gives authority.

warranty : warrantia : a promise made in a deed by one man to another to secure the grantee and his heirs against all impediments and competing claims, such that the grantee might enjoy continuous use of whatever the deed grants.

warren : waerande [Du] : guerenne [Fr] : a park or preserve for rabbits.  The game of a warren included rabbits, phesants, and partridges.  Cf. chase, forest, game.

warrener : the keeper of a warren.

warrior : soldier, military man.

warrioress : amazon, a female warrior.

Warwick : Varvicum : Verouicum : Verovicum : Vervicum : Warwicus.

Warwickshire : Warws. : Warewichscira.

Warws. : Warwickshire.

Wash. : WA : Washington.

washing stool : [1548] waysshinge stoole.  Such a stool was made for the maids at Hunstanton in September 1548.[20]

Washington, George (1732-1799) : U.S. President George Washington’s birthday occurred on 1731’32/2/11 OS/NS (JC) : 1732/2/22 GC.  The date 1731’32/2/11 OS/NS serves as an example of how the disparity between Old Style and New Style dates was simply a matter of differing year-dates between 1 January and 24 March each year.  Otherwise, the OS/NS dates and days of the week were identical, according to the Julian Calendar (JC).  At the time of his birth, Washington’s birthday was reckoned to be 11 February 1731 OS Julian, according to the English OS Julian Calendar.  Washington was born on 11 February 1732 NS Julian, according to the English NS Julian Calendar.  After the Colonies accepted the Gregorian Calendar in 1752, Americans began to regard Washington’s birth retrospectively, as 22 February 1732 GR (GC), in Gregorian Retrospection.  Cf. Gregorian Retrospection.

wassail : [Sx] liquor made from apples, sugar, and ale; a merry song; a drinking party.

wassailer : drunkard, topper.

wast : the second person of was.

watch : forbearance of sleep, attendance without sleep; guard, close observation, guard.

watchman : guard, sentinel, one who keeps ward.

water : ▽ : ♥ : (mercury) : ä : the sign - denoting subtraction : the sign - meaning places.

water : a euphemism for a person’s urine, as might be contained in a urinal or waterpot, and sometimes saved for later inspection by a physician.  Cf. indican.

water : the fourth of four elements, corresponding to phlegm, phlegmatic humor.

water brash : pyrosis, a condition similar to heartburn; the belching up of a watery fluid.

waterbailage : ballivagium, a duty the City of London imposed on exports leaving on foreign vessels.

Waterfd. : Waterford, Ireland.

watergall : a small cavity or depression made in the earth made by some concentration of falling rain; some phenomenon concurrent with the sight of a rainbow.

wax : [Sx] a tenacious mass used to fasten letters; the thick and tenacious matter bees use to form the cells of a honeycomb.

way : [Sx] the road one travels, a road for passengers; means, mediate instrument, intermediate step.

wayfarer : passenger, traveler.

wayfaring : traveling, passing.

waynskotts : wainscots : wainscoting.

WB : Will Book.

wd. : widow.

We : Welsh.

weak : pliant.

weathercock : an artifice mounted on a spire to tell the direction of the wind; anything fickle and changing.  The device has been traditionally designed in the shape of a rooster or cock.

weatherspy : astrologer, stargazer, forecaster, meteorologist, one who foretells the weather.

weatherwiser : something that foretells the weather.

weaver’s reed : the flax comb used to separate threads.  The comb was secretly regarded as the symbol of the labia of the vulva.

weavers : Erinyes, those who weave bad things.  Opp. Graces.

weavers : Graces, those who weave good things.  Cf. Graces.  Opp. Erinyes.

weavers : Manicheians.  Cf. beguines, Free Spirit, Great Weaver, Harmonia.

wed : to contract matrimony, to marry, to take for husband or wife, to join in marriage, to unite forever, to take forever.

wedded wife : espoused by marriage.  Opp. concubine, quod vide.

wedding : marriage, nuptials, nuptial ceremony.  Cf. Domestic Partner Ceremony.

wedding band : wedding ring.

wedding dress : Cf. something old.

wedding gift : a gift that a celebrant gives to a bride to supplement her dowry, usually at a bridal shower; a gift that a celebrant gives to couple newly married, usually at the marriage ceremony.  A wedding gift is intended to increase and enhance the matrimony, or the wealth a bride brings to a marriage by means of a dowry, and any personal or real property held by the bride in her own right.  Cf. bridal register.

wedding ring : the groom’s gift of a nuptial band to his bride.  The ring represents bride wealth.  Cf. bride wealth.

wedding ring : wedding band, the second ring a groom presents to his bride to commemorate their nuptial rites.  The engagement ring marks betrothal, has greater importance than the wedding band, and is usually more decorative than the wedding band.  Cf. engagement ring.

wedlock : [Sx] marriage and gift, matrimony.

Wednesday : the fourth day of the week, named after Odin or Wodin.  Cf. Miercoles [Sp].

weduwe : [Du] widow.

weduwnaar : [Du] widower.

weed : [Sx] a noxious or useless herb.

weeding : wedinge, removing weeds from a garden.[21]  Cf. wages for weeding.

weeds : waed [Du] : clothes, habit dress; the upper garment.  Cf. widow’s weeds.

week : Cf. reckoning by weeks.

weekday : DOW : day of the week.

weekday : a work day falling on Monday through Friday, the five days excluding weekends of Saturday and Sunday.

weeper : lamenter, mourner, bewailer; one who sheds tears.

weeya-noompa : wila numpa.

Weibling : [Gm] an invert or Urning mainly attracted to rough trade, or to hypermasculine butch types.[22]

Weiblinge : [Gm] hypermasculine butch or rough-trade types.[23]  Cf. Mannlinge.

Weichlinge : [Gm] sissie, weakling, mollycoddle, softie; Luther’s translation of malakoi.[24]

weight : [Sx] gravity, heaviness; importance, power, influence; quantity measured by the balance or scales.

welfare : [1994] corporate welfare; cash payments made directly to corporations by the U.S. government, as incentives and subsidies.  In 1994, the Federal government gave to U.S. corporations some $170 billion, which amount was more than one half of all the military budgets of the U.S.  The U.S. government grants to corporations three times as much money as it grants to poor people ($55 billion).

welfare : [1994] military welfare, represented by the military budget of the United States, which accounts for roughly $300 billion in annual outlays.  U.S. monies for warfare and armaments comprise some 5% or 6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and is equal to approximately six times (6x) the budget for social welfare.

welfare : [1994] social welfare, benevolent contributions to the public weal through the systematic donation of food and monetary assistance to the poor and indigent.  In 1994, Federal welfare programs consisted of the Federal Food Assistance Programs ($33 billion) and Aid to Families with Dependent Children ($22 billion), representing some $55 billion in Federal welfare expenditures.  The amount was roughly one-sixth (1/6) of the U.S. war and armaments budget.

welfare : success, prosperity, happiness.

Wellington Gate : a monumental archway north of Buckingham Palace, London, that has long been reserved for the exclusive use of sovereigns.  The body of Diana, Princess of Wales, was drawn through the archway as a token of royal respect, during her funeral on 5 September 1997.

Welsh : We : relating to the people or country of Wales.

wen : [Ch Táng, ad 618-907] charge, badge; coat of arms; mon [Jp].  Chinese families adopted simple and unique ensigns during the Tang dynasty, and applied the symbols to standards, flags, helmets, and clothing.  The Chinese rubrics or marks were simple devices that could be easily depicted, often in two contrasting colors, but the designs never developed into fancy or complex achievements, such as we find in European heraldry.  The distinctive wen gradually disappeared from common use in China, but happened to survive and endure in Japan, where the mon are still used to decorate clothing, furniture, and implements.

wench : [Sx] strumpet, a young woman, a woman held in contempt.

wench : to frequent loose women.

wencher : fornicator.

Wenta : Monmouth.

were : protect.[25]

were : the plural form of to be in the indicative or subjunctive imperfect case.

wergern : [Yurok] a shaman male, magician.

-werth : Worth- : [Sx] farm, court, village.

West Semitic syllabaries : Ugaritic, Phoenician, Hebrew, Aramaic, and other languages that developed their syllabic writing systems from the logo-syllabic phonography of Egypt.

Westmaria : Westmorland.

Westminster Assembly : [1643-1649] the long-lasting presbyterian conclave that eventually resulted in the publication of the Westminster creed in 1648, and led to the establishment of Presbyterianism.  Previously, the presbyterians had been members of the Church of England, Church of Scotland, and Church of Ireland, but the policies of Charles I (regnavit 1625-1649) eventually excluded the presbyterians, by driving them out of the church and the Parliament.  About 170 presbyterians were expelled from Parliament around 1648, and therefore the presbyterians were not involved in the condemnation and regicide of Charles I.

Westmoria : Westmorlandia : Westmorland.

Westmorland : Westmd. : Westmaria : Westmoria : Westmorlandia.

Westph. : Westfalen, Germany.

wete : wheat.

wheat: Whete, wete.

wether : a castrated male sheep; castrated ram.  Cf. mutton, sheep.

Wexfd. : Wexford, Ireland.

WGmc : West Germanic.

wh. : who, which.

wharf : werf [Du] : quay, key; a perpendicular bank or mole for loading or unloading ships.

wharfage : dues for docking at a wharf.  In his instructions to plenipotentiaries negotiating in the Netherlands, Henry VIII argued that wharfage was a reasonable assessment, considering the fact that the private residents in the neighborhood of a wharf were obliged to maintain and repair it.  He further argued that ships which press against a wharf and thereby damage it ought to recompense the owners for the damage.[26]

What is the blood relationship you have with him? : Cia an col atá agat leis? [Ir].[27]

wheeling work : opus circulatorium.  Cf. rota philosophica.

wherry : a light boat used on rivers.

whete : wete, wheat.

Whig : wiggamors, whiggs [Sc] : the political party that rose in opposition to the Tory party in Great Britain, and won a majority in Parliament in 1832.

Whiggarchy : government by the Whigs.

whine : to make a plaintive noise, to lament in low murmurs; to moan effeminately.

whiner : one who whines.

whining white-male syndrome : an array of symptoms that sometimes afflict an American white male.  Whining is a characteristic of patristic males who busy themselves expressing racism, gynecophobia, and homophobia, to the utter exclusion of anything higher in life.  Cf. Muscular Christianity, Promise Keepers, Republicanism, victimhood.

whip : [Sx] a tough and pliant tool for the corporeal punishment of lashing.

whipcord : whypcorde : cord of which lashes are made.  The family le Strange bought whypcorde for 1d in 1519.[28]

whipping : [1603] lashing, flogging, flagellating; a common, public public punishment for any offender of any age and any sex.  The Constable’s charge for a public whipping was once a fourpence or groat (4d), but it later escalated threefold, to one shilling (1s).  Statutes of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I often expressed the provision that offenders “should be stripped naked from the middle upwards, and whipped till the body should be bloody.”[29]  It was the practice to tie victims to the local whipping post, where they could be publicly flogged and humiliated.  Wheresoever a whipping post was unavailable, it was customary to use the end of a cart or wagon to tie the hands of the criminal to be whipped.[30]  Cf. whipping post.

whipping as punishment for all sorts of mankind : a Tudor and Elizabethan variety of corporeal punishment and bloodsport that was fairly universal, and inflicted upon all kinds of people.  Those subjected to lashing and whipping included girls twelve and thirteen years of age, women as old as sixty years and more, smallpox victims, vagrants, and beggars.  The whipped included lunatics, or madmen, and distracted women, or madwomen.  The public stripping and whipping of women endured in England until 1817, when it was banned.[31]  Cf. bloodsport.

whipping as punishment for women : [inde 1817 En] the public stripping and lashing of girls as young as twelve or thirteen years of age, and of women as old as sixty years.  The English abolished the whipping of women in 1817.  Cf. whipping post.

whipping of a family : In Elizabethan times, it was not uncommon for a man to be publicly stripped, lashed, and whipped, together with his wife and children.  This Tudor custom was a bit kinder than the Chinese custom of including wives and children in condemnations to death.  Practitioners theorized that threatening a man with lineal extinction would serve to deter criminality, but it never did.  English clergymen frequently issued the orders for punishing a whole family.

whipping of the blind bear : [1603] an Elizabethan blood sport wherein a team of six men would whip a hooded bear until they drew blood.  We presume that the ursine victim must have been tethered, but it might have been simply fenced.  The bear would often grab the whips, and thereby disarm his tormentors, and would sometimes manage to wound his attackers by clawing them.  Cf. -baiting, bearbaiting.

whipping post : a punishment for distracted women.  The whipping post was a common feature of each community, and victims had their hands tied above them to the post.  As the stocks came into fashion, constructors tended to mount iron rings upon the stocks, so as to double their use in place of a whipping post, or whipping cart.  Cf. whipping.

white cells : [1863] white blood cells; leukocytes, white blood corpuscles, the white or colorless blood cells that do not contain hemoglobin.  Cf. B-cell, T-cell.

white cockade : [1745] a white ribbon decoration for a hat, showing one’s allegiance to the House of Stuart during the ‘Forty-five Rebellion.

white herring : Cf. herring.

White Shell Girl : Cf. Navajo creation story.

White Ship : Blanche-Nef : [1120] the ship that sank in the English Channel in 1120, drowning the heir apparent William Atheling, son of Henry I.

Whitmanesque : in the style of Walt Whitman.  Cf. Calamite.

Whitsun : Whitsunday : Pentecost, seven weeks after Easter, in May or June

who : a relative pronoun that refers to persons; whose in genitive; whom in other cases.

whore : [1613] a mistranslation of qĕdēshāh.

whore : Horo, Horon : [Teutonic] slime, filth.[32]

whore : Hure : [Gm] prostitute.[33]

whore : prostitute, fornicatress, adultress, strumpet; a woman who receives men for money.

whoredom : fornication.

whoremonger : scortator.

whoreson : So; bastard, son of a prostitute.

whose : the genitive of who or which.

whypcorde : whipcord.

Wi & HuBr : levirate marriage.

Wi : [anthropology] wife.  Cf. spouse (Sp).

wicca : coven of the wise.

wiccan : wife.

Wiccia : Worcester.  Cf. Hwicca.

wick : [En slang] lesbian.

wicked : the word that summarizes several others words that sound like it, namely wick, weak, wiccan, wicca, wise, witch, wizard.[34]

wicker: [Barbados] lesbian.

Wickl. : Wicklow, Ireland.

wid. : widow.

widow : to deprive of a husband; to endow with a widow-right or portion.

widow : vidua : a woman whose husband has died.

widow inheritance : a custom whereby a man of a younger generation may inherit the wife or wives of a man of the older generation.  In a patrilineal system, the norm is called filial widow inheritance, and it permits the son to take his father’s wife or wives, but excludes the son’s own mother.  In a matrilineal system, the norm is called nepotic inheritance.  Cf. filial widow inheritance, nepotic inheritance.

widow inheritance : a levirate marriage wherein a surviving brother inherits his dead brother’s widow.  Usually, widow inheritance requires the second husband to be the younger brother of the decedent, in which case the younger brother is called the levir.  Cf. ghost marriage, levirate marriage.

widow’s weeds : the mourning dress of a widow.

widower : one who has lost his wife.

widowerhood : the state of a husband whose wife has died.  Cf. widowhood.

widowhood : viduity, the state of a widow; an estate settled upon a widow.

widowhunter : one who courts widows for marriage.

widowmaker : one who deprives women of their husbands.

widr : [contraction] widower.

wife : slaveborn wife : [Ghana] a virgin given in marriage to a Trokosi king as compensation for some crime committed by her ancestor or relative.  A Trokosi king is honored as a fetish priest, and marries virgin slaves donated to him by families seeking the god-king’s forgiveness for a family sin.  The king is likely to have as many as 10 slaveborn wives, and some 60 children by them.  The slave labor and servitude of such a wife is intended to offset the guilt arising from some past transgression.  One such wife was married into slavery because her great-great-grandmother had stolen gold earrings.  Another slave wife entered into marriage because her great-grandfather had murdered someone.  Yet another slave wife married her priest-king as a penalty for her uncle having committed adultery.  Thousands of women in Ghana are contracted to fetish priests in this manner.  White headbands signify freedom, and are worn by wives who have no such encumbrance.

wife : a woman who intends to be permanently faithful to the man with whom she lives.[35]

wife : Cf. et ex, et exor, uxor.

wife : gwraig [We].

wife : Wi : a woman who has a husband; a woman of low employment; épouse [Fr], esposa [Sp], Ehefrau [Gm]; echtgenote [Du].

wife-givers : [Manboru] WiBr; yera, the bride donors.  Cf. hūnyīn.

wife-givers : donor affines.  Cf. alliance.

wifehood : wivehood : the state and character of a wife; behavior becoming a wife.

wifeless : wiveless : unmarried, without a wife.

wife-takers : [Mamboru] SiHu; layia, the bride donees.  Cf. hūnyīn.

wife-takers : donee affines.  Cf. alliance.

-wig : [Sx] a suffix signifying ‘war’ or ‘hero.’

wig : false hair worn on the head.

Wigornia : Worchester.

wila numpa : weeya-noompa : [Lakota] doublewoman, an instructress of a shaman noviciate or koskalaka.  The doublewoman was the older shaman, who had the power of uniting two women together by the rope-baby ceremony.  Cf. koskalaka, rope baby.

Wild Geese: Cf. Battle of the Boyne.

Wilhelmus : William.

wilks : wylks : sea-snails, periwinkles.  The family le Strange bought wylks for 1d in 1519.[36]

will : [Sx] command, direction, disposition, inclination, desire; testament, disposition of a man’s effects; last will and testament.  In feudal times, it was not possible to express one’s own will respecting real estate, because the testator was merely a tenant, and succession was a matter for his lord to decide.  By the sixteenth century, the notion of feudal tenancy had begun to change, and therefore testators began to voice their own desires respecting the transfer of land possession.  Consequently, the expression ‘last will’ has come to be regarded as synonymous with a testament, and vice versa.  Wills never contested or challenged happen to remain private documents, but especially complex wills, or wills subject to examination or administration, must be filed at a probate court.  Cf. administration, holographic will, last will and testament, nuncupative will, preamble, probate, testament.

will abstract : a register entry in a will book, summarizing one particular last will and testament, and showing the names of the testator, beneficiaries, witnesses, and executors.  The abstracted records are selective, for they pertain only to wills administered by a probate court.  If no one ever contested a will, the researcher may conclude that no public abstract of the will was ever recorded.

will book : a collection of will abstracts; a register summarizing all of the last wills and testaments filed at a probate court.

Willi- : Vili : [Sx] many; a name prefix meaning ‘many,’ e.g. Willielmus ‘defender of many’ and Wilfred ‘peace to many.’

William : Guillelmus.

William Atheling : the son and heir apparent of Henry I.  William drowned when the White Ship sank in the English Channel in 1120, and several historians attributed the sinking of the ship to divine retribution, saying that William and his companions were sodomites and ‘intemperate and foppish youths.’  However, this allegation seems to have been fabricated, for we have no independent confirmation of William Atheling’s proclivities.

William II Rufus: [regnavit 1087-1100]  His contemporaries referred to his private affairs with such terms as effeminacy, moral abandon, immorality, shameful behavior, and the vicious life.[37]

William II Rufus and Tyrrel : Ph & Er; William II Rufus, King of England, and his longtime companion and lover Tyrrel.  William II never had a female sweetheart, and never married.  His court became notorious for its many effeminati, and he purportedly worshipped Lucca, or Lucifer, brother of Diana.[38]  William II was the close friend and companion-at-arms of William, Count of Poitou, first of the Troubadours.

William, Count of Poitou : the first Troubador; the close friend and companion-at-arms of William II Rufus.

Wills : [ante 1858 Northern En] The probate records for the northern parts of England before 1858 are deposited at Borthwick Institute of Historical Research.

Wills : [post 1858 En, Wa] Wills dated in England and Wales from 1858 onward can be ordered for a fee from the Probate Office, Duncombe Place, York YO1 2EA, UK.

Wiltescira : Wiltshire.

Wiltonia : Wiltshire.

Wilts. : Wiltshire.

Wiltshire : Wilts. : Vilugiana Provincia : Wiltonia : Wiltescira.

wimple : a head covering, which is gathered around the head and pleated beneath the chin.

wind colic : interalgia : flatulent colic : a distressing pain in the bowels.

window : an aperture in a building through which light and air may pass.

Windsor Herald : one of six secondary heralds.

wine : Cf. bottle sizes.

Wine Steward : a servant who dispenses wine at a restaurant.  Cf. steward.

winkte : [Lakota] an androphilic medicine man in Sioux culture.  The transvestite priests were called a ‘sisterhood’ and had their own, sacred burial grounds.[39]  Cf. koskalada.

winkte : [Oglala] a shaman male, magician.  The winkte was commonly believed to be a hermaphrodite, or half-man and half-woman, who represented some hysterical permutation of two fetuses, who would have been otherwise born as twins.  The Oglala Sioux openly accepted a winkte, for the wise believed that a person should be freely permitted to act out whatever nature suited himself.  However, the winkte dressed and acted as women, and participated in the cooking and beadwork.  Heterosexual fathers segregated the winkte, and cautioned their sons not to visit the winkte.[40]  Cf. Gemini, twins.

Winnebago : [WI, NE, IL, NE] fish eaters; a tribal name that gave it name to Lake Winnebago, WI, and the River Winnebago in Minnesota and Iowa.  The Winnebago was a tribe with female chiefs.

Winnebago shaman : [1889] siange.  The Winnebago people became ashamed of their custom of indulging transvestite shamans, due to the acute derisions of white settlers.[41]

winnows : [1548] whiñes; reedy sifters used to separate chaff from grain.  Cunstable was paid 6d for felling winnows for brewing work at Hunstanton in March 1548.[42]

Winter Even : Halloween, 31 October, the pagan equivalent of New Year’s Eve, for the pagan year ended on Halloween.

winter solstice : Cf. solstice.

Wis. : WI : Wisconsin.

wisdom : sapience, judicious conduct; the power of judging rightly; prudence, skill in affairs.

wise : knowing the craft.

wit. : w. : witness, witnessed.

witch : Cf. hare.

witch : wise woman.

witchcraft : [1584] Reginald Scot issued his Discovery of Witchcraft in 1584, and his opinion and assertions were criticised and modified by George Gifford in 1587, and by James VI of Scotland in 1597.[43]

witchcraft : [1597] James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, had good cause to be interested in witchcraft, so he educated himself in its history, and wrote an authoritative dialog called Daemonology in 1597.

witches : [1591] A number of witches of both sexes were arrested for trial in 1591, and charged with performing rituals to cause the death of James VI of Scotland.  The king himself attended some of the inquisitions, and was astonished when the witch named Agnes Sampson told him privately a precise account of what had transpired on his wedding night in Norway.  A recounting of the trial was published in England in 1592, and is believed to have inspired Shakespeare to write his famous witch scene in Macbeath.[44]

witches of Arras : [1460] the homosexuals and lesbians accused of heresy in a treatise dated 1460.

witches of Dauphine : a coven that assembled at sabbats held on Thursdays.[45]

witchhunt : the raising of the hue and cry in pursuit of witches; the systematic arrest, trial, and execution of lesbians accused of Satanism, or male witches accused of buggery and child molestation.  Witchhunting is a peculiar form of patristic panic, that aims to elevate patriarchy, and to denegrate all that is matrist, promiscuous, and feminine.  Witchhunts are cyclical, and tend to be repeated for long periods of history.

witchhunts : [1673-1695] the Massachusetts witchhunts in colonial times; the Puritan persecutions that were documented in two leather-bound volumes of proceedings at the Superior Court of Judicature.[46]  The first volume was transcribed and published in 1901, but the second volume was rediscovered in July 1996, and has not yet been published.[47]

witchhunts American : actions taken against groups of people on the allegation of child molestation, such as re Little Rascals Daycare (1989-1997), and re MacMartin Preschool.  During the fundamentalist Reagan and Bush administrations, witchhunts became popular and nationwide.  The Attorney General campaigned against pornography, the First Lady mounted her ‘Just Say No’ crusade against drug abuse, and the courts were packed with cases alleging sexual misconduct at daycare centers for children.  Of the hundreds and hundreds of allegations of collective child molestation, all of the cases were dismissed by 1997, and all of the defendants were released.  A witchhunt is simply a patriarchal purge, conducted to reëstablish patrism and debase matrism.  The allegations of a witchhunt center upon the traditional crimes that are normally made by Christians against sodomites and lesbians, namely promiscuity, cultism, ritual murder, et cetera.  It is ironic that the real perpetrators of child or adolescent molestation, and serial murders, are usually found to be white men, rather than women or blacks.  Whether for good or for bad, obsessions with the promiscuities of homosexuals are typically masculine and Christian obsessions.  Cf. Little Rascals Daycare.

witness : one who delivers verbal testimony in court; one who stands as a sponsor at a baptism; one who signs a document to attest that it is genuine.

witness : testimony, attestation.

Witwe : [Gm] widow.

Witwer : [Gm] widower.

wive : to marry, take a wife; to match to a wife.

wives : gwragedd [We].

wizard : wisard : male witch; a wise person, learned person; conjuror, magician, enchanter.

wk. : week, work.

wks. : weeks, works.

Wodin : Odin.

woman : a female human; a female attendant on a person of rank.

womanhater : misogynist : one who has an aversion to the female sex.

womanhood : womanhead : the character and qualities of a woman.

womanishness : the state or quality of being womanish.

womankind : the female sex; the race of women.

woman-woman marriage : the custom of same-sex marriage among the Nuer.[48]

womb : [Sx] uterus, vulva, matrix; the place inside the mother where the fetus grows.

women : whomen.[49]

whomen : women.[50]

women in the military : Although women have always served the U.S. military in ancillary rôles, segregated units of women did not become customary until World War II.  The military branches have been gradually integrating women into the ranks of male soldiers for many years, but military women do not yet have statuses equal to men, and there are many examples of double standards.  The U.S. military prevents women from joining combat units, sometimes subjects women to sexual harrassment, and holds women to different standards with respect to adultery and lesbianism.  Cf. adultery in the military.

women’s suffrage : Cf. Athens and Poseidon, suffrage.

wont : habit, custom, use.

woo : to court, sue for love; to invite importunity, to court solicitously.

wood : 5th year of marriage; symbol of the fifth wedding anniversary.

woodcock : [1519/10/18 Sx] woodcocke, a bird of passage with a long bill.

woodward : forester, an overseer of the woods.

wool : [Sx] the fleece of a sheep; the short and thick sheep hair that is woven into cloth.

wool : 7th year of marriage; symbol of the seventh wedding anniversary.

woolfel : a sheep skin not yet stripped of its wool.

wool-sorter’s disease : anthrax.

Worcester : Vigornia : Wiccia : Wigornia : Yeogerieceastrie.

Worcestershire : Worcs.

Worcs. : Worcestershire.

word sign : logogram.

working wife : [1830] a wife working for wages outside her husband’s household.  The number of wives who found employment outside the household was perhaps 10% in the U.S. in 1830.  The 1790 census did not tabulate white wives and daughters, because their labor attached to the householder, and did not constitute separate units of labor.  Wives taking outside employment was a novel idea in 1830, but it became commonplace and nearly universal by the 1990s.

workwoman : a woman skilled in needlework; a woman who works for hire.

world : earth, the terraqueous globe; all bodies considered collectively; mankind, a system of beings.

worship : cultus.

worship : veneratio, dignity, eminence, excellence; a tile of honor, respect, and civil deference; the idolatry of lovers, submissive respect.

worshipful : claiming respect by some character or dignity.

wound : an injury given in violence.

WPA : Works Projects Administration.

WPA Historical Records Survey : [1936-1943] a U.S. government program that provided funding for the transcription and indexing of historical and government documents for publication.  The survey resulted in a series of published works, many of which have become fundamental to genealogy and local history.

wraith : the apparition of a person about to die.

wreck : destruction at sea; destruction by being driven upon the rocks or shallows; dissolution by violence.

wrestler : one who engages in the athletic art of wrestling; one who contends in wrestling.

wretch : [Sx] poor thing, a worthless and sorry creature; a miserable mortal.

writ : a court or assize order requiring a specific action or giving authority and commission to have it done.

writ : scripture, anything written; a judicial process in which one is summoned as an offender.

writ d.c.e. : perhaps writ de capias extendi, a writ of execution issued against a debtor to the crown, literally meaning “that you take ——,” wherein the monarch commands his sheriff to ‘take’ or arrest the body, and ‘cause to be extended’ the lands and goods of the debtor.[51]

writ de adio et atia : an appeal brought ‘maliciously out of hate and spite’.  The ap­pellee might be tried by jury, or a jury might be formed to determine the true nature of the appeal.[52]

writ de expensis : writ of expenses, intended for a sheriff to levy.[53]

writ de intendendo : a writ to the tenants.[54]

writ of certiorari : a writ to be informed of; a writ issuing out of the chancery asking for records of a cause to be brought forth.  A superior issued such a writ was issued to an inferior re­questing a certified record of a particular deci­sion or judgement.  The phrase was formerly used by feudal lords, but its modern usage is limited chiefly to judicial courts.[55]

writ of execution : fieri facias; an order issued to a sheriff, directing him to satisfy a judgement by collecting the amount from the judgement debtor.

writ of habeas corpus : Cf. habeas corpus.

writ of novel disseisin : a writ, by 12 free and lawful men duly sum­moned, directed to the sheriff of the county wherein the subject lands lay, authorizing him to execute the decision of the assize.[56]  Cf. assize of novel disseisin.

writ of praecipe : injunction, a command issued in anticipation of some problem or conflict.[57]

writer : [Sc] lawyer.

Writer to the Signet : [Sc] a legal professional in Scotland, equivalent to a solicitor or lawyer in England.

writing : typology of writing, the three main types of writing systems, namely semasiography, phonography, and metagraphy.

writing : written upwards, as some Ogham inscriptions are written.

writs quare : a category of common-law writs used to summon the defendant to explain the why and wherefore (quare) of the damage he caused the plaintiff.  Common such writs are clauses beginning with the Latin Quare …, asking for what cause or reason the defendant acted against or disturbed the plaintiff.[58]

ws : [anthropology] woman speaking.  Cf. f-, fs.  Opp. m-, ms.

Wuertt. : [Gm] Württemberg, Germany.

wŭfú : [Ch] five mourning degrees.

Wuotan : Odin.

ww. : widow.

wwr. : widower.

Wyo. : WY : Wyoming.

wyr : [We] grandson, grandchild.

wyres : [We] granddaughter.