This page gathers the 6,588 dictionary entries of which at least one sense is labelled “Historical” by Wiktionary. The definition shown is that sense; each word leads to its full entry. Page 21 of 66: from “Falerian” to “firmament”.
- Falerian adj Of or pertaining to the city of Falerii (now Civita Castellana and Faleria).
- false fire noun A combustible carried by vessels of war, chiefly for signalling, but sometimes burned for the purpose of deceiving an enemy.
- falx noun A short Dacian sword resembling a sickle.
- familia noun A household or religious community under one head, regarded as a unit.
- familiar noun The officer of the Inquisition who arrested suspected people.
- familism noun The beliefs or practice of the Family of Love religious sect, active in sixteenth century England.
- family roof noun A large, old-fashioned model of umbrella.
- fanega noun A traditional Spanish unit of dry measure, chiefly used for grain and roughly equivalent to a bushel.
- fangot noun A unit formerly used for a bundle of silk, especially silk from Aleppo, of varying or unclear weight.
- fangshi noun A Chinese technical specialist, flourishing from the third century BCE to the fifth century CE: variously an alchemist, astrologer…
- Faradian noun A student of Faraday House (1890–1967), an electrical engineering college in London.
- Faraizi noun A member of an Islamic revivalist, reformist and militia movement of Eastern Bengal, founded in 1818.
- fardel noun An English unit of land area variously understood as the fourth part of an oxgang or of a yardland.
- farm noun A fixed yearly sum accepted from a person as a composition for taxes or other moneys which he is empowered to collect; also, a fixed charge…
- farmer noun One who takes taxes, customs, excise, or other duties, to collect for a certain rate per cent.
- farmer-general noun A member of a privileged association in France, before the French Revolution, who collected duties on behalf of the king, along with bonus…
- farthing noun A quarter of any monetary unit or measure.
- fascine knife noun A large, heavy knife or short sword used by 17th- to 19th-century artillery and infantry soldiers as a sidearm and a tool for cutting…
- fascio noun An organised Italian political group, typically one resisting state government and advocating radical change; (specifically) any of a…
- fascist noun A member of the National Fascist Party in Italy from 1922 to 1943.
- fast telegram noun A telegram sent during either the day or night at a full rate for immediate delivery, typically with a minimum charge for 10 words or less.
- father noun A senator of Ancient Rome.
- fathom noun A man's armspan, generally reckoned to be six feet (about 1.8 metres). Later used to measure the depth of water, but now generally replaced…
- fauld noun A piece of armor worn below a breastplate to protect the waist and hips.
- favor noun A ribbon or similar small item that is worn as an adornment, especially in celebration of an event.
- Febronianism noun A powerful movement within the Roman Catholic Church in Germany in the latter part of the 18th century, directed towards the nationalizing…
- fedai noun An Ismaili Muslim assassin; also (later), a killer in the same tradition.
- fedayee noun A fedayi, an Armenian partisan fighter in the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- federal noun A Union soldier in the American Civil War.
- federal city noun Washington, D.C.
- federalist noun A member of the Federalist Party, an 18th- and 19th-century conservative, liberal US political party which was one of two major parties…
- fee noun A right to the use of a superior's land as a stipend for certain services to be performed, typically military service.
- feitoria noun A Portuguese trading post, usually fortified and built in coastal areas along the West and East African coasts, Indian Ocean and Brazil…
- feldgrau noun The color of the field uniform of the German Army from late 1907 until 1945.
- feldscher noun In Russia, one with practical but not formal medical training.
- felicific calculus noun A quasi-mathematical technique proposed by 19th-century utilitarian ethical theorists for determining the net amount of happiness…
- fellow noun A senior member of an Inn of Court.
- fellow-travel verb To sympathize with a particular individual, movement, or party, especially the Communist movement or party.
- felony noun A serious criminal offense, which, under United States federal law, is punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than one year or by…
- felquiste noun A member of the Front de Libération du Québec, a militant Quebec separatist group founded in the 1960s.
- femerell noun The lantern, louvre, or covering placed in the ridge of a hall roof for the purpose of ventilation or letting out the smoke of the fire…
- fence the tables verb To make a solemn address to those who present themselves to commune at the Lord's Supper, on the feelings appropriate to the service, in…
- fenderboard noun A board protecting the steps of a carriage from the dust thrown up by the wheels.
- Fenian adj Of or relating to roving bands of hunter-warriors in ancient Ireland, especially the band led by the hero Fionn mac Cumhaill in Irish…
- Fenni noun An ancient people of northeastern Europe first described by Cornelius Tacitus in Germania in AD 98. It is unclear whether the Fenni are…
- Fennoman noun A member or supporter of a nationalist political movement in 19th-century Finland that wanted to raise Finnish to the national language of…
- ferrado noun A traditional Galician unit of dry measure, equivalent to about 12–18 L depending on the substance measured.
- fers noun The medieval chess piece that developed into the modern queen.
- ferule noun A ruler-shaped instrument, generally used to slap naughty children on the hand.
- fervent adj Of a drug: having an abundance of heat as one of the four qualities believed to be characteristic of all things; hot rather than cold, dry…
- fetial noun A member of the Roman college of priests who acted as representatives in disputes with foreign nations.
- fettler noun An ostler; one who looks after the horses in a mine.
- feu noun Land held in feudal tenure.
- feud noun A combination of kindred to avenge injuries or affronts, done or offered to any of their blood, on the offender and all his race.
- Feuillant noun A member of a certain political group during the French Revolution.
- Fian noun A member of the small bands of warriors and hunters in Gaelic Ireland during the Iron Age and early Middle Ages.
- fiar noun One in whom the property of an estate is vested, subject to the estate of a liferenter.
- fichu noun A woman's lightweight triangular scarf worn over the shoulders and tied in front, or tucked into a bodice to cover the exposed part of the…
- fideicommissary noun The beneficiary of a fideicommissum.
- fief noun Land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service.
- fiefdom noun The estate controlled by a feudal lord.
- field ambulance noun A military mobile medical facility set up on or near the battlefield in order to provide initial medical treatment to the wounded.
- field colours noun Small flags used to mark the position for companies and regiments.
- field cornet noun A civilian official in a drostdy, invested with the authority of a military officer and empowered to act as a magistrate.
- field police noun A police force charged with maintaining order beyond towns and other settlements, in the countryside or bush.
- fifth wheel noun A horizontal wheel or segment of a wheel above the front axle and beneath the body of a carriage, forming an extended support to prevent it…
- fifth-rate adj Of a Royal Navy warship in the Napoleonic Era: having 32–44 guns across one or two gun decks, a complement of 200–300, and weighing…
- figure-caster noun Someone who draws up astrological figures; an astrologer.
- figurism noun An intellectual movement of Jesuit missionaries at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, whose participants viewed the…
- figurist noun A proponent of figurism.
- filibuster noun A mercenary soldier; a freebooter; specifically, a mercenary who travelled illegally in an organized group from the United States to a…
- Filipina noun A female Philippine-born person of pure or majority Spanish descent.
- Filipino noun A male Philippine-born person of pure or majority Spanish descent.
- final solution noun The planned and attempted mass murder of the European Jews by the Nazis; the Holocaust.
- find in verb To supply (someone) with (something).
- finder noun A person who picks up scraps and oddments to sell to make a living.
- finger noun The teeth parallel to the blade of a scythe, fitted to a wooden frame called a crade.
- finger pillory noun A wooden restraint designed to lock a person’s fingers in place as a form of mild punishment, discipline, or public shaming.
- finger screw noun A torture instrument featuring a small vise with ridged metal plates.
- finger stocks noun A device used as a punishment for fidgeting or nail biting.
- fingersmith noun pickpocket
- fipenny noun A fivepenny; a fivepenny bit.
- fire alarm horn noun A siren used to alert a town or neighborhood of fire.
- fire damper noun A mine worker who detects and clears a mineshaft of firedamp by intentionally burning or blowing it up.
- fire escape noun Any apparatus designed to allow people to escape a burning building, such as a canvas tube for sliding down.
- fire lance noun A weapon, first used by the Chinese, consisting of a spear with one or more primitive flamethrowers attached.
- fire mark noun A plaque mounted outside a house, bearing the emblem of the insurance company, as a guide for the fire brigade.
- fire pike noun A flaming lance, more commonly used in sea battles; sometimes used as a distress signal.
- fire step noun A step or platform dug into the front side of a military trench - allowing soldiers to stand on it in order to fire over the parapet.
- fire-eater noun An extreme partisan for the South before the US Civil War.
- fireball noun A bag or ball filled with combustible material which is thrown as a weapon or to set something alight.
- firefall noun A summertime event held in Yosemite National Park from 1872 to 1968, in which burning hot embers were spilled from the top of Glacier Point…
- firelock noun A form of gunlock, in which the priming is ignited by a spark.
- fireman noun A safety inspector in coal mines.
- firemaster noun An artillery officer who supervised the composition of fireworks.
- firesetting noun The use of fire to soften or crack the working face of a lode, to facilitate excavation; later superseded by the use of explosives.
- fireship noun A wooden ship set alight and then sent floating into an enemy flotilla, with the aim of spreading the fire among them.
- fireside chat noun Any one of a series of 30 evening radio talks given by United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944.
- fireworker noun A person in charge of the operation of a gun.
- firmament noun In the geocentric Ptolemaic system, the eighth celestial sphere which carried the fixed stars; (countable, by extension) any celestial…