gobbet - a lump or chunk of something, especially of raw meat + gibbet - instrument of execution consisting of a wooden frame from which condemned persons are executed by hanging + to dodge the column - to evade one's responsibilities + (notebook 1923): 'Ruminants dodge gobbet R & L'.
choker - one who chokes (strangles) another person + Phil the Fluter's Ball (song): 'Ye've got to pay the piper when he toothers on the flute'.
chew the cud - to reflect deeply on a subject (the term transfers the appearance of a patiently ruminating cow to a person deep in thought)
scrub - to remove (dirt or stains) by hard rubbing + (illuminated manuscripts).
pitchcap - a form of torture devised by British forces in 18th century Ireland which was widely used against suspected rebels during the period of the 1798 Rebellion, most famously on Anthony Perry, one of the leaders of the Wexford rebels. The process involved pouring hot pitch, or tar, into a conical shaped paper "cap", which was forced onto a bound suspect's head and then allowed to cool. The "pitchcap" was then torn off taking lumps of skin and flesh with it which usually left the victim disfigured for life + (notebook 1924): 'pitchcap triangle' → R.R. Madden: United Irishmen I.xi.337: 'The numbers tied up to the triangles and tortured with the scourge, or tormented with the pitch-caps... in the year 1798' (quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary under 'pitch-cap').
triangle - Mil. (Usually pl.) A tripod, orig. formed of three halberds stuck in the ground and joined at the top, to which soldiers were formerly bound to be flogged (e.g. during the Irish rebellion of 1798).
noose - a loop, formed with a running knot, which tightens as the string or rope is pulled, as in a snare, lasso, hangman's halter, etc.
tinctus (l) - a dipping into, a dyeing; baptized + tunc (l) - then + tintregh (obs) - torture + tincture + REFERENCE
circum (l) - around + minium (l) - red-lead, cinnabar; at a triumph the triumphator's face was painted red with minium + inluminatus (l) - lighted up, illuminated + circumminioilluminatus (l) - lit up all around with minium (O Hehir, Brendan; Dillon, John M. / A classical lexicon for Finnegans wake).
encomia (l) = enkomia (gr) - praises, eulogies + quoniam (l) - since now, seeing that.
impropery - reproach, upbraiding; (Lat. improperia: 'the reproaches'; Christ's address to the people on Good Friday; also, the taunts to which Christ was subjected).
gezumpher (Slang) - swindler
greeze - ''The historical scramble for the pancake, or the 'Pancake Greeze', as it is called by the boys, took place'' + is.
jarry - abounding in jarring or jars + jolly
felon - a vile or wicked person, a villain, wretch, monster + For He's a Jolly Good Fellow (song).
bloke - to turn pale + bless
pansy - a plant of the genus Viola and its blossom, originally purple and yellow. Cultivated varieties have very large flowers of a great diversity of colors. The name 'pansy' derives from French pensée: thought.
Puss in the Corner - children's game in which four individuals occupying the four corners of a room try to run from one corner to another while the fifth, the 'puss', on the alert in the centre, tries to rush in to claim a vacated space, so leaving the dispossessed person in the middle as a new 'puss' + (for *I*, who has to write a letter).
'I'm sitting on the stile, Mary' (song)
dolour - physical suffering, pain + bottom dollar - U.S., (one's) last dollar, usu. in collocations with bet.
culus (l) - arse + cul (fr) - arse + curious.
chafe - to rub with the hand; esp. to rub (a person's limbs, etc.) in order to restore warmth or sensation.; fig. To heat or ruffle in temper; to vex, irritate + William Shakespeare: Hamlet V.2.10: 'There's a divinity that shapes our ends'.
incipit (l) - '[here] beginneth': Used by mediæval scribes in indicating the beginning of a new treatise, poem, division, etc.; hence, as n. The beginning or first words or lines of a treatise or poem + incipit intermissio (l) - the intermission begins + intermission - a temporary pause, cessation, or breach of continuity in an action, state, etc.
Beweise (ger) - proofs + beware.
fanciulla (it) - young girl + FDV: Beware of Fanciulla's heart, the heart of Fanciulla. And her hand that's as gloveless as a peer's in the presence and how both will be ready maid marrying when Jollicomes matching home. Though her loinstones be jade & her moon increscent She may will swoon over Shelly to get a crush on the coalman or learn from Dalcroze how to drop her umbrella, but her true line as the little grey nuns will show her without fuss or muss either for today is thine but whose tomorrow is to beg 2 makes for a wing but when there's no more tay for sugar the cosy and she's looked her last on lonesomeness for that divinity showshapes their ends backview them how we will.
spellbinder - one that holds others spellbound, especially an enthralling speaker or a particularly interesting book
lässt zu hören (ger) - is evident, expresses himself
stella (it) - star
essa stessa (it) - she herself + Vanessa.
droop - something which is limp or sagging, a condition or posture of drooping
POHLMAN AND SON - Around the turn of the century, this firm's "Music and Pianoforte Warehouse" was at 40 Dawson Street.
Fabius Maximus (d. 203 B.C.) - dictator in Second Punic War. Called Cunctator ("Delayer") because he relied on guerilla tactics against Hannibal to conserve Roman strength after Trasimene and Cannae + Flavius (l) - "Blond": name of a Roman gens + Fabius (l) - "Skilled": name of a Roman gens.
maximus (l) - the greatest
Flavia (l) - "Blonde": woman of the gens Flavia + flapper (Slang) - a young woman + (notebook 1931): 'Flabby & the Flapper'.
minimus (masc.) (l) - opposite of Maximus + minima (fem.) (l) - very small, smallest.
coalman - a man who has to do with coal + {Different characters differently hear plink-plunking water drops: ah eh oh; pick, peck; pack, puck}
behove - it is incumbent upon or necessary for (a person) to do (something); Used, owing to confusion between the accusative and nominative as a personal verb: To be under obligation (to do); = ought, have; to suit, to befit + Luke 1:38: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord'.
jenny wren - a popular, and esp. nursery, name for the wren (also locally kitty wren): sometimes regarded in nursery lore as the wife, bride, or sweetheart of Robin Redbreast + 'Jenny Wren fell sick' (nursery rhyme).
twinge - fig. A sharp mental pain; a pang of shame, remorse, sorrow, or the like + Heavenly twins - Castor and Pollux.
feint - to make a feint or sham attack + faint
slept on your letters (notebook 1931) → Young: Trial of Frederick Bywaters and Edith Thompson 179: (letter from Edith Thompson to Bywaters, trial exhibit 50) 'I slept on your letter last night darlint unopened I had no chance to read it but got up at quarter to six this morning to do so'.
con - to cause to learn, to teach (obs. rare.)
keep up - to keep shut up or confined; to keep from deteriorating or disappearing; Printing. To keep (type or matter) standing; also, to use capitals somewhat freely.
(noun is name of a person, place, or thing)
modesty - womanly propriety of behaviour; scrupulous chastity of thought, speech, and conduct (in men or women); reserve or sense of shame proceeding from instinctive aversion to impure or coarse suggestions + On Her Majesty's Service (letters).
Brutus, M. Junius (85-42 B.C.) - descendant of L. Junius Brutus, assassin of Caesar + L. Junius Brutus (fl. 510 B.C.) - semi-legendary leader of revolt against the kings of Rome; founder of the Republic.
arrear - in pl. Outstanding liabilities, amounts, or balances; moneys due, debts + William Shakespeare: Julius Caesar III.2.73: 'lend me your ears'.
penman - an author, a writer + 'Three men, two men, one man and his dog / Went to mow a meadow' (song).
hun - anyone or anything good of its kind
rockabye, baby - a traditional phrase (esp. in a nursery rhyme) to induce an infant to fall asleep, used as an accompaniment to the rocking of a cradle
flatten - to make flat in shape, to reduce to a plane surface + Humpty Dumpty (nursery rhyme): 'Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall'.
dun (dun) (gael) - fort
fen (Cornish) - strong, eager, strenuous
break news - to make it known, disclose, divulge it; now implying caution and delicacy
gent - gentleman; now only vulgar, exc. as applied derisively to men of the vulgar and pretentious class who are supposed to use the word, and as used in tradesmen's notices + Browning: How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix.
outermost - situated farthest out from the inside or centre, most outward
strut - to behave proudly or vaingloriously; to flaunt, triumph, swagger
turquin - a dark-green pumpkin + Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (fl. 534-510 B.C.) - L. Tarquin the Proud: traditional last king of Rome; an Etrurscan, probably historical; his son raped Lucretia, precipitating revolt led by L. Junius Brutus that ended the kingship (also appears in Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece).
cuckold + (notebook 1923): 'Trist (et Is) cocu'.
Adams and Clay (song) + adama (Hebrew) - earth, clay.
Is takes his hat (notebook 1923)
posy - a short motto, originally a line or verse of poetry, and usually in patterned language, inscribed on a knife, within a ring, as a heraldic motto, etc.; a bunch of flowers; Sometimes in the sense of poesy + postcard + pussycat.
cord - Aphetic f. accord
major and minor modes (music)
wound - fig. To injure, inflict pain or hurt upon, in a manner comparable to the infliction of a wound + wended
afare - to depart; pa. pple., departed, gone