Book of Breathings - a funerary composition with ideas derived from 'The Book of the Dead'

hereditary - coming to one from one's precursors in national or physical life + Joyce's note: 'hereditary'.

coerce - to compel or force to do anything; to enforce or effect by compulsion + course

hindquarters - the part of a quadruped that corresponds to the human buttocks (in this case, ass)

old fellow (Slang) - father

horologium - a dial, clock, or chronometer + orologio (it) - clock, watch.

olorium (l) - place where swans are kept; place where odors are kept

maggot - a whimsical or perverse fancy, a crotchet

trope - a figure of speech which consists in the use of a word or phrase in a sense other than that which is proper to it; also, in casual use, a figure of speech; figurative language + trop (fr) - too much.

custodian - one who has the custody of a thing or person; a guardian, keeper

fed up - sated to the point of disgust, bored beyond endurance + Joyce's note: 'I am fed up going about' → Freeman's Journal 19 Apr 1924, 5/1: 'Cobh Crime. Coonan Remanded on Murder Charge': 'He gave his name as Patrick Joseph Coonan, Tipperary, adding: "I am one of the men who shot British soldiers at Cobh, and I am fed up going about"'.

Hitler's + hiker + hykler (Danish) - hypocrite.

Budge: The Book of the Dead cv: 'The soul without a name was in a terrible plight in the Other World, for its name was an integral part of its being, and if it had forgotten its name... it could not be presented to the Great God'.

erc'h (Breton) - snow + irked

skorn (Breton) - ice + scorned

grizilh (Breton) - hail + grizzled - having dark hairs mixed with gray or white.

rusty - having the colour of rust, of a (disagreeable) light reddish brown

bleak - cold, chilly; fig. Cheerless, dreary + Black Forest, Germany.

verbally - in or with (mere) words, without accompanying action or reality

compulsed - compelled, forced

noted - that is specially noticed, observed, or marked; distinguished, celebrated, famous

cachalot - sperm whale + catch a lot trout + Catholic Truth Society.

subside - to sink down, fall to the bottom, precipitate

thought of river as way out (notebook 1924)

spit - a small, low point or tongue of land, projecting into the water; a long narrow reef, shoal, or sandbank extending from the shore

LAMBAY ISLAND - Island North of Howth; it dominates the seascape North of Dublin. St Columcille founded a monastery, now vanished, on the island, and Archbishop Ussher wrote most of his works in a castle incorporated in present Lambay Castle. 

clog - a shoe with a thick wooden sole protected by a rim of metal, worn in the north

collar + "Hump, helmet and all?" [045.06]

poteen (Irish) - illicit whiskey + pontoon - a floating structure that serves as a dock or to support a bridge + epi oinopa ponton (gr) - upon the wine-colored sea (Homeric formula).

John "Old Smoke" Morrissey - 19th century Irish-American boxer, gang member and Tammany-Hall-backed politician (associated with colts via: (a) his central role in creating the Saratoga Springs horse-racing course, and (b) his failed attempt to kill a rival gang member using a colt revolver).

tithe - tenth; a tenth part (of anything) + tight fit.

pig's stomach affair = free will (notebook 1924) → Crawford: Back to the Long Grass 120: (of African words) 'the origin of many of their words is as amazing as amusing; "the free-will" of man, for instance. This is chifu cha nguluve = a pig's stomach affair, and refers to their notorious custom when cutting up a pig, that all or any portion of the pig is bestowable except its infra dig. stomach. This is neither saleable nor stealable; anyone can off with it, no "by your leave" being necessary'.

dearth - a condition in which food is scarce and dear; fig. and transf. Scarcity of anything, material or immaterial.

miraculous - so extraordinary as to appear supernatural; marvellous, astonishing

meddle - the action, or an act, of meddling or interfering + middle.

expend - expenditure; consumption + Eddington: The Expanding Universe.

I am afraid I am hopeless (Joyce's note) → Irish Independent 30 Apr 1924, 8/4: 'Western Teacher's Action': (cross-examination of the plaintiff, a teacher, in a libel trial) 'Did you ask Father Quinn to help you out of your difficulties with the parents at Ballymote? - No. And did he say he was afraid that it was hopeless? - No.'

franking machine - an officially authorized machine, introduced by the British Post Office in 1922, used by large concerns for 'stamping' letters, etc., with a sign (in lieu of an affixed postage stamp); it simultaneously records the cost of postage (this being periodically checked and collected by the Post Office).

limited + FDV: — Dear Shaun, I said, then it is if it were you that who will bear this letter you speak of?  

belated - overtaken by lateness of the night, overtaken by darkness, benighted; detained beyond the usual time, coming or staying too late + beloved.

open letter (Joyce's note) → Gallois: La Poste et les Moyens de Communication 290: (of the concept of the post card) 'the advantages of an open letter, subject to a pre-determined weight, which could travel more cheaply than an ordinary letter and thus be more economical for both the State and the public'.

Emania - ancient capital of Ulster + [regio] Aemilia (l) - [region of the] Aemilian [Road]: Italy just south of the Po + Aemilia - mother of twins in Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors.

As for what I have the power... (notebook 1924) + FDV: — As, Shaun replied, for to that I have the power.

patly - in a manner that fits or agrees to a nicety with the purpose or occasion, aptly; in the very nick of time, opportunely + (notebook 1924): 'patly'.

toothpick + tootle - speech or writing of more sound than sense; verbiage, twaddle. 

tact - ready and delicate sense of what is fitting and proper in dealing with others, so as to  avoid giving offence, or win good will + tattoo.

damper - snack between meals; something that damps or depresses the spirits, etc. + down in the dumps - sad and discouraged.

gunpowder (according to Samuel Lover's Handy Andy, once sold in Irish postoffices)

benison - blessing, beatitude + ben (Hebrew) - son.

Barbe - respectful title given by the Vaudois to their teachers + barbe (fr) - beard + Sainte Barbe (French) - Saint Barbara, patron saint of artillery-men (and masons, miners, etc.)

lot + luck.

beig (beg) (gael) - little + beg (Anglo-Irish) - little + FDV: — Tell me, I said, dear Shaun, when do are you mostly able to work?

mor (mor) (gael) - big

mostly - for the most part; in the main

...Tell me when do you work... (notebook 1924)

whimper - to utter a feeble, whining, broken cry, as a child about to burst into tears; to make a low complaining sound + Whisper and I Shall Hear (song).

fondle - to handle or treat with fondness, to caress + FDV: — I am mostly able to walk. It, Shaun replied, was foretold for me not never to work but believe me, I say my prayers regularly.

cowheel - the foot of a cow or ox stewed so as to form a jelly; the dish prepared from this

cuff - the lap consisting of a turned-back hem encircling the end of the sleeve or leg; shackle that consists of a metal loop that can be locked around the wrist.

sabbath - a time or period of rest; a cessation from labour, trouble, pain and the like

mire - a piece of wet, swampy ground + Irish mile = 1.828 m.

mass - the Eucharistic service + *VYC* and *IJ*

chaplet - a wreath for the head, usually a garland of flowers or leaves, also of gold, precious stones, etc. + chapel - a place of public worship of the established Church, subordinate to, or dependent upon, the church of the parish, the accommodation supplied by which it in some way supplements + chapel of ease (Slang) - water closet. 

pedestrian - one who goes or travels on foot, a walker + pederasts + Joyce's note: 'I am always telling him'

answerer - one who replies to a question or appeal + Budge: The Book of the Dead lxxviii: 'the custom to bury... figures of the deceased with him... so that... they might perform whatever work fell to his share. To these figures the Egyptians gave the name ushabtiu... commonly rendered by "respondents" or "answerers"'.

Tom Sawyer, Sid Sawyer (his brother), Huckleberry Finn - characters in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn + Tom, Dick and Harry.

veriest - superlative of very

truth + Thoth - Egyptian god.

recession - the action of receding, retiring, or departing, in various transf. or fig. senses + Theban recension of 'The Book of the Dead' is the one that Joyce studied when he wrote the Wake. Written roughly fourteen centuries before the birth of Christ, according to Budge's chronology, the Papirus of Ani shares enough common elements with other books of the dead to have enabled Egyptologists to classify it as one of the many "Theban recensions" - that is, as one of several variations of the Book of the Dead which, because of their common properties, were written at a historical moment in which Thebes was a center of power in the Egyptian kingdom. (John Bishop: Joyce's Book of the Dark).