Alehold: A pub or tavern

Agenothree: A common chemical on Pern, HNO3. It was used in flamethrowers to produce a charring gas that burns Thread.

Bambu: Bamboo. A tall, treelike shrubby grass that grows mainly on the Southern Continent and only in marshy areas of tropical and semi-tropical regions. It is used for fashoning fishing rods, wicker like work and food.

Basic Rights: The rights given to every Pernese person. An example is a candidate that is Searched has the right to stand at a hatching, and choose to remain at the weyr is they do not impress in hopes at impressing at a later clutch.

Belior: Pern's largest moon

Between: The strange, cold, black area of nothingness. A dragon may go between and come out in a different location.

Birthing Woman: Pernese equivalent of a Terran midwife, a woman who assists at (human) births.

Black heavy-water: analogous to Terran oil.

Black Rock: Coal

Bovine: Cattle. Some are used for milk (milchbeasts), dome for meat (herdbeast) and some for work (draybeast)

Bubbly Pies: A common dessert at gather. It's sweet pie with berry (usually blueberry) filling

Bubbly (Bubbling) Wine Champagne

Candidate: A person, typically between 12 and 20 years old (although they can be as young as 10) that stands at a hatching in hopes of Impressing. Queen candidates tend to be more mature, 18-22 years of age.

Caprine: A goat. They may be used for milk and meat. The angora types may also be used for their hair.

Cartbeast: oxen

Cereal: on Pern cereal is eaten (often hot) as breakfast in the form of porridge (made by boiling oatmeal, or other meal, in water or milk until it thickens; originally called pottage)

Chilblains: Pernese name for itching fingers because of the cold

Cleansing sand: sand used as soap. See also sweetsand and sweet soap.

Contract Hold: a term for a Hold to which somebody has contracted (or indentured) himself to do certain work or labor

Contract worker: a contract worker is a laborer that sells his or her labor for a set amount of time. It is a rule that a contract worker must have his basic needs supplied by the Hold he indentures himself to

Cooky: a small, thin, dry cake, usually sweetened; often taken with klah

Crafthall (Hall): Crafthalls are the 'guilds' of Pern.

Crawler: Type of Pernese insect that humans find really annoying

Day Sisters: A trio of stars visible from Pern. Also called Dawn Sisters

Dragonet: A young dragon.

Direct flight: direct flight means a flight without going between.

Draybeast: An animal used for draft work. Usually oxen, donkey or mules

Drudge: a worker. Usually not intelligent enough to be apprenticed in any craft. They do the menial tasks such as food preparation and cleaning.Fellis Juice: A narcotic painkiller that can be addictive. It is created from Fellis Tree fruits.

Espousal: engagement/bethrotal or marriage

Firestone: A phosphorous-bearing mineral which dragons chew to produce flame.

Firelizard: They are like miniature dragons, their DNA being the basis of the process that engineered dragons. They are small, usually an arms length at full growth, growing up in a matter of weeks. They have thinner and streamlined bodies than those of dragons, and can only communicate by pictures. They are extremely intelligent, though don't always understand humans. They come in the same colors of dragons, and develop unique personalities, Impressing anyone of their choice.

Flamefly: firefly

Furs: bedding or blankets

Gitar: guitar

Glow: a light-source which can be carried in a hand-basket.

Hatching: A public event where a clutch hatches and the dragonets impress

Harpers: The teachers and entertainers. They educate the young of  the hall, hold, and weyr through the Teaching Ballads. The Masterharper is responsible for training the younger harpers, the appointment of harpers to Weyr, hold, and hall, and the discipline of the harpers.

Herdbeasts: Refers to bovines, in particular those used for meat.

Hold: They are generally built into a cliff or a cave system, and are where the common people live and work. A Hold is administered by a Lord Holder.

Impression: The choice of rider made by a newly-hatched dragon, which occurs at a Hatching. The dragons choose their riders, and the lifelong bond between dragon and rider begins through the joining of their minds.

Interval: The period of time between passes where no thread falls. They are normally 200 turns but there may be the occasional Long Interval lasting up to 400 turns.

Jr. Weyrwoman: A female dragonrider who rides a gold, and is understudy to the Senior Weyrwoman.

Jr. Weyrleader: A male dragonrider who has flown the queen of the Jr. Weyrwoman

Klah: A hot stimulating drink made of tree bark and tasting faintly of cinnamon.

Llama: An animal used as a beast of burden. Llama's hair is also used.

Looking metal: mirror

Milchbeast: A bovine used for milk

Month: Four Sevendays

Needlethorn: The needles of the plant can be used as syringe for injections and to draw blood.

Numbweed: It's a medicinal cream which, when smeared on wounds, kills all feeling it is used as an anesthetic. If too much numbweed is used it will cause bleeding and scarring. To prepare the salve, it requires 3 days of stewing, then 1 day to strain it, and the juice skimmed to the right consistency for the salve.

Ovine: A sheep. They may be used for milk (which is typically made into a cheese), meat and wool.

Pass: A period of time during which the Red Star is close enough to drop Thread on Pern.

Pern: Third of the star Rukbat's five planets. It has two natural satellites.

Porcine: A pig. They are used for meat.

Poultry: The birds of Pern used for meat are tamed wherries, geese, chickens, quail, and the very rare duck. Tamed wherries are most common, as the Terran birds did not adapt as well to Pern (and so are rare).

Records: archives

Red Star: Pern's stepsister planet. It has an erratic orbit.

Rukbat: A yellow star in the Sagittarian Sector, Rukbat has five planets and two asteroid belts.

Runner: Usually a courier, however it can also bea shorted name for a runnerbeast

Runnerbeast: An animal adapted to Pern's conditions. There are racing, farm working beasts, and placid riding types that are distinctly bred for these conditions. A runnerbeast is frequently called 'runner' for short.

Sanding: lathering

Sevenday: A week on Pern

Shipfish: dolphin(s), rarely used by the informed, since the dolphins have made it clear they don't like to be called fish

Sky-broom: The wood is difficult to work, but highly prized in the WoodcraftHall. Its used for some harps and other instruments. It's also the highest quality of material for a painter's 'canvas'

Sleeping furs: bedding, blankets

Snowstaves: skis

Starsmith: astronomer

Star Stones: A figuration of stones set up on the rims of a weyr used to foretell the arrival of a pass, which is when the red star can be seen through the eye rock.

Stone-clean: bare, free of greenery

Sulfure sticks: Matches

Sweet oil: perfume

Sweet soap: sand used as soap, see also cleansing sand and sweetsand

Sweetsand: sand used as soap, see also cleansing sand and sweetsoap

Thread: Now beleived to be gone by almost all of Pern, thread was a parasitic organism that originated from spores from the Red Star. It descend on Pern and burrowed into it, devouring all organic material encountered. Only stone and metal are impervious to Thread. TThread was fought by burning it out of the sky before it could hit ground; however water can also drown the silver strands.

Timor: The smaller of the two moons of Pern

Tubers: a root vegetable, possibly potatos

Tunnel Snake: Technically not snakes because they do have six pairs of legs, these creatures are a minor annoyance to the people of Pern.

Turn: a Pernese year.

Turnover: A two-day period at summer solstice (actually, it was winter solstice in the North) where the calendar changes to the next year. One day is counted as the previous year, the other the new year, though they are not part of any month. Pern has 362 days, and each month is thirty days long - the extra two days of a year are at the beginning to the year and the end, for Turnover.

Watch-dragon: the dragon whose rider has pulled a watch duty on the Weyr roster. A watch is generally 4 hours long. During a Pass, they watched for any erratic Threadfall that might, by chance, occur. Also watch for anyone entering or leaving the Weyr.

Watchwher (also Wher): An ungainly nocturnal creature, a cousin to the dragons. They are vicious when aroused, protective of those they see as friends. They are used as a watch dog in the holds and halls, but can also be used in mining ventures

Weyr: a home of dragons and their riders.

weyr: a dragon's den

Weyrleader: The rider of the dragon that has mated to the queen of the Weyrwoman during her flight. The Weyrleader is in charge of the fighting wings of the Weyr, responsible for their conduct during Falls, and the discipline of all riders.

Weyrsinger: the Harper for the dragonriders, usually a dragonrider him or herself

Weyrwoman: the rider of a dragon queen, and co-leader of the Weyr, along with the Weyrleader. She is responsible of the conduct of the Queen's wing during Fall, under the Weyrleaders orders; for the care of the dragons, riders, and all Weyrfolk; and for the peace and tranquility during Intervals. She appoints all subordinates, insures that all tithes are delivered and collected, and mediates all disputes except honor contests among riders. As any dragon or rider will obey the queen dragon of the Weyrwoman, or the weyrwoman herself, she is one of the most powerful people on Pern.

Wherries: a type of fowl roughly resembling the domestic turkey of Earth, but about the size of an Ostrich.

Wherhide: leather

Wingleader: The dragonrider in command of a Weyr's fighting wing, the Weyrleader is in charge of all the fighting wings, usually in the main one.

Wingsecond: the dragonrider second in command to the Wingleader.

Pernese Curses, Oaths, Explicatives
Begreened
Benighted
By the Egg
By the Egg of Faranth
By the First Egg
By the Shell
By the shards of my Dragon's egg
Crackdust
Deadglow
Eggshells
Fardles
Great Faranth
Great shells and stars
Scorch it
Shards
Shells
Through Fall, Fog and Fire