Anchylosis: stiffness of joints
Bassinette: bassinet, basket used as a baby’s cradle
Bedight (dirt-bedight): adorned
Besom: broom
Bully: bully beef, corned beef
Bullyrag: bully
Carcase: carcass, dead body of an animal
Chaplet: garland
Chasseurs: French light infantry units
Cotillons: dance, ball, parade
Cullender: colander
Debouch: emerge from an confined space into an open area
Declivity: a downward slope
Demi-poils: reservists, part-time soldiers (from poilu)
Dight (gaily-dight): equipped, clothed
Dinner-fatigue: dinner dress
Divers: several
Funk-hole: dugout or similar place of refuge or shelter
Gabion: a cage filled with rocks or soil used to protect against enemy fire
Gehenna: hell (from the New Testament, a place near Jerusalem where children were sacrificed to Baal)
Gethsemane: a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, the scene of Jesus’s agony and betrayal
Goldbeater’s skin: parchment, made from the outer membrane of calf’s intestine, traditionally used in the process of making gold leaf
Gridiron: a metal frame used for grilling over an open fire
Guipure: a heavy lace
‘Have the pip’: be depressed
Immortelle: an everlasting flower, especially Xeranthemum annum
Jellygraph: printing device (also known as a hectograph) that uses a pan of gelatin, or gelatin pad pulled tight on a metal frame to copy original documents.
Jingo, pl. Jingoes: bellicose person, loudly supporting war, especially in the name of patriotism
Lave: wash
Louse-box: hat, helmet (slang)
Lug: ear
Manille: card game
Mantilla: a lace or silk scarf
Marge: edge, margin
Miry: very swampy or muddy
Napoo: British WWI era army slang meaning ‘finished’, ‘gone’
Neb: nose
Nonsuch: something regarded as excellent or perfect
Phizog: face (archaic English slang)
Picon bitters: a bitter, alcoholic aperitif that traditionally accompanies beer in the east and north of France.
Picric acid: an explosive compound used in WWI artillery shells
Plumbago: graphite
Poilu: French soldier – see footnote
Puttee: a long strip of cloth, wound round the leg from ankle to knee for protection
Rime: frost
Rubicund: having a ruddy complexion
Sap: deep, narrow trench
Scrimshanker: shirker
Shako: a cylindrical or conical military hat with a peak or plume
Shallop: light sailing boat
Skull-stuffing: brain washing
Sous-intendance: deputy supply corps officer
Spondulicks: money
Tirailleurs: light infantry units recruited from French colonial territories in North Africa
Virago: a loud-voiced, bad-tempered woman
Zouaves: French light infantry units; famous for their distinctive dress, they saw extensive service on the Western Front