Mar 20, 2016
Rampallion
Noun. A bold, forward, rampant, or wanton woman; a woman who romps. An Elizabethan term. Thus Falstaff to Mistress Quickly, when she attempts to have him arrested: “Away, you scullion; you rampallion; you fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe.” (Henry IV Pt. II, Act II, Scene I.) A suggested modern use: “Mom, can I have a rampallion for my birthday?” (Incidentally, a fustilarian is a fusty-lugs, or beastly, sluttish woman; and a catastrophe, in the above context, is a posterior.) -- Peter Bowler
