missus - wife, mistress
Guinevere - Arthur's queen, Lancelot's mistress + queen of Eire.
arrah - an expletive expressing emotion or excitement + TDV: And it's herself that's fine too, don't be talking, and fond of the concertina of an evening: Her hair's as brown as ever it was. And wivvy and wavy. Repose you now! Finn no more!
shirk - to evade (a person, his conversation, acquaintance, etc.) + shake hands
longa (Beche-la-Mar: Melanesian pidgin) - to
plenty + healthy.
dibble - to make holes in the ground + devil a hap'orth (Anglo-Irish) - not a halfpennyworth.
hayfork - a long-handled fork used for turning over hay to dry, or in pitching and loading it
lex - law + lek (Serbian) - medicine + "The 'Lex Salica', the Frankish Salic Law, is pertinent in the context (widowhood) because of its pronouncements on male and female rights of descent (the passing of property (in England only of real property) to the heir or heirs without disposition by will). The syntactic echo, however, is 'her leg's selig' (German: 'happy'). That is to say, she is not sufficiently grave, as would become a recent widow. We may also find the Dutch zalig, meaning delicious, or blessed, but the word most clearly fitting the reservation of the earlier part of the sentence is Irish salach, 'dirty'. Devil a hayfork's wrong with her only her leg's dirty." (McHugh, Roland / The sigla of Finnegans wake)
bald + old.
tib cat - a female cat
does be (Anglo-Irish) - habitual present tense of 'to be'
smirk - to smile; in later use, to smile in an affected, self-satisfied, or silly manner, to simper
pollock - an highly esteemed marine food fish; Polack (a person of Polish descent: a disparaging or derisive term) + Castor and Pollux.
woolly - a woollen garment or covering
tabouret - a low seat or stool
stitch - a single movement with the needle + to stick to one's last - to keep to that work, field, etc., in which one is competent or skilled.
enchantment - alluring or overpowering charm; enraptured condition
nester - one that nests (as a bird)
flue - chimney, a smoke-duct in a chimney
"It's an ill wind that blows no good" (proverb)
best of men - an epithet of the Buddha
gulden - any of various silver coins + gulden (Dutch) - golden; florin + gold and silver.
findrinny - white bronze + James Joyce, Letters I.348: letter 16/10/34 to Giorgio and Helen Joyce: 'A 30-year wedding should be called a 'findrinny' one. Findrinny is a kind of white gold mixed with silver'.
rein - one of a pair of long straps (usually connected to the bit or the headpiece) used to control a horse + reins (Archaic) - kidneys, loins.
ribbons (Colloquial) - reins (for driving)
swoop - to move rapidly
fluttersome - given to or characterised by fluttering
second - to give support to, back up, assist, accompany
last post - bugle call at a burial or at the end of day
concertina - a portable musical instrument invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1829, consisting of a pair of bellows, usually polygonal in form, with a set of keys at each end, which on being pressed admit wind to free metallic reeds.
forty winks - a short nap, esp. after dinner
colcannon - a traditional Irish dish mainly consisting of mashed potatoes with kale or cabbage
dimpling - making of dimples + dumpling - a kind of pudding consisting of a mass of paste or dough, more or less globular in form, either plain and boiled, or inclosing fruit and boiled or baked.
Merlin chair - an invalid wheelchair invented by J.J. Merlin
assotted - infatuated + asit - to sit, settle; remain sitting.
Evening World - a New York City newspaper, 1887-1931
smart - stylish in dress, showing careful attention to details of appearence + short - short clothes.
A full-length coat or skirt is long enough to reach the lower part of a person's leg, almost to the ankles. A full-length sleeve reaches a person's wrist.
swagger - fashionable, posh, smart + swagger coat - a type of three-quarter-length woman's coat (fashionable in the 1930's).
fellah - a peasant in Arabic-speaking countries; fellow
Fez - town in Morocco
Stormont - suburb of Belfast, the site of the Parliament of Northern Ireland
stilla (it) - drop + stella (it) - star.
going away - (of clothes) designed for wear when leaving on honeymoon
Vanity Fair - a place or scene where all is frivolity and empty show
rosy - healthy, blooming, tending to promote optimism
Ding (ger) - thing + Dick, Tom, Harry.
noise - to report, rumour, to spread rumours; to make a noise, to talk loudly
chuckle - quiet laugh
Selskar Gunn (1883-1944) - son of Michael Gunn and Bessie Sudlow, friend of Joyce. In Danish, elskere means "lovers."
pervenche (fr) - periwinkle
viv (Danish) - wife
bluebell - a plant with flowers shaped like bells
salty - containing or impregnated with salt
sepulchre - grave
zee - "z" + the end + zee (Dutch) - sea + see (i.e. cross-reference to the end of the book).
silver ash - a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown
switch - a coil of false hair, worn by women as a hair-supplement
flare - to burn with a spreading, unsteady flame, as when blown by the wind
anastasis (gr) - resurrection
how are you! (Anglo-Irish phrase) - don't be absurd! + The Letter: how are you.
Worth, Charles (1825-95) - dressmaker, born in Lincolnshire + Worter (ger) - words + worther = comp. of worth (worthy of, having a value of).
waist - the portion of the trunk of the human body that is between the ribs and the hip-bones + worth her weight.
noblest - superl. of noble + noble - illustrious by rank, title, or birth.
James Adam - auctioneer, had offices at 17 Merrion Row and 19 Stephen's Green. The only auctioneer on Wood Quay in the early 20th century was John Bentley.
John 8:11: 'sin no more'
be = by + TDV: And be the hooky salmon sammon there's a big rody lad now at random on the premises, I am as it's told me, flourishing like a lord mayor (on for show), the height of a brewer's Brewster's chimpney, humphing his showlders like he's such a grandfallar with a pockedwife in pickle that's a flyfire and three sly little lice nittle clinkers, two twin twilling bugs and one midget pucell pucelle, and either he did what you know or he did not what you know with weep the clouds alone for [weeping smiling] witnesses and that'll do now but however that may be 'tis sure for one thing that he, overseen as we thought him, came to at this place some time or another in a hull of a wherry and has been repeating himself like fish ever since an as also for all batin the bulkihead, [he bloats about, the that innebbiate,] that he was of humile commune & ensectuous from nature, as his you may guess from after his byname, & that he is he & no other he who is primarily responsible will be ultimendly respunchable for the high hall cost of everything.
hooky - covered with hooks + hook - a fish-hook, an angle + holy sermon
rody = ruddy - having a fresh red complexion + TDV: there's a big rody lad
ram - a male sheep; a sexually aggressive man, a lecher + ram (Hebrew) - high, tall + 'an old black ram / is tupping your white ewe': Shakespeare, Othello 1.1.88-9 + (Tristram).
at random - without restraint, at great speed, without consideration, care, or control; at any range other than point-blank (obs.)
premise - a proposition upon which an argument is based or from which a conclusion is drawn; (Business/Commerce) pl.: a piece of land together with its buildings, esp considered as a place of business.