begob = begorra - Anglo-Irish alteration of the expletive by God
sinister - relating to the use of the left hand (rare.)
Purge → "Finewell's Keepsacre but later tautaubapptossed Pat's Purge" [080.07] + Set (Shem), son of Sabean Mother, Typhon (Ursa Major). Shaun is father's son Har (Horus), descendant of Orion.
Tim/Tom (motif)
anaglyptograph - machine making relief representations of medals and coins
testimonial - a writing testifying to one's qualifications and character, written usually by a present or former employer, or by some responsible person who is competent to judge + testicles.
annis (l) - years + Saint Patrick's novitiate lasted twenty years.
orf - a vulgar or affected pronunciation of off + give off - to relinquish; to cease, leave off + for.
show the white feather - (in allusion to the fact, that a white feather in a game-bird's tail is a mark of inferior breeding) to show signs of cowardice
home cured - cured 'at home'
sealevel - a level or flat surface of the sea + Scott: The Lay of the Last Minstrel I.xi: 'He learn'd the art that none may name, In Padua, far beyond the sea. Men said he changed his mortal frame By feat of magic mystery' (James Joyce: Giacomo Joyce 3: 'Padua far beyond the sea'; Joyce took exams in Padua in 1912).
bearer - one who brings a letter; the actual holder or presenter of a cheque, draft, or other order to pay money
figura porca (l) - sow-shape, pig-shape (an expression used by Pound)
lictor - an officer whose functions were to attend upon a magistrate, bearing the fasces before him, and to execute sentence of judgement upon offenders + lictor magnificus (l) - noble lictor + Rector Magnificus (l) - noble rector.
magnare (Italian Colloquial) - to eat + fica (Italian Slang) - vulva (i.e. cunnilingus) + magna (l) - great, large (feminine).
sneaking - not openly declared or shown, undemonstrative + spitting likeness - exact likeness + snake + Joyce's note: 'HCE likeness to ALP'.
alter ego - a second self
Oxonian - of or belonging to Oxford; a member of the University of Oxford + Ausonius (l) - Italian.
ambs ace (Middle English) - double ace, lowest throw in dice (bad luck) + within an aim's ace - very near, almost.
Romeo - a lover, a passionate admirer; a seducer, a habitual pursuer of women + William Shakespeare: Julius Caesar V.5.68: 'noblest Roman' + (Roman nose).
crack - to utter, pronounce, or tell aloud, briskly, or with éclat; formerly in crack a boast, word, jest; and still in crack a joke
quip - a sharp or sarcastic remark directed against a person; a clever gird or hit. In later use also without implication of sharpness: A clever, smart, or witty saying; a verbal conceit. Freq. in phr. quips and cranks + whips.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (wrote in his Confessions about enjoying being spanked as a child)
sooner eye his mother's blushes
bedew - to be wetted with dew; hence active, To cover with dew-like moisture.
lafter - dial. form of laughter + After (ger) - anus + FDV: He's every damn biter's bit as nasal a romeo as I am myself for ever cracking quips on himself, [that merry, [the jeenjakes,] he'd [soon] bring mothers roses, tears & all, with bedewing tears into any girl's laughtercheeks laftercheeks.]
impediment - something that impedes, hinders, or obstructs; a hindrance, an obstruction
jarry - abounding in jarring or jars + Alfred Jarry - eccentric French dramatist + very
betimes - at times, occasionally + FDV: He's jarry betimes but, [queer fish and all,] I'm dreadfully enormously fond of him so I'll say I am.
grant - to bestow or confer as a favour, or in answer to a request
cantankerous - showing an ill-natured disposition; ill-conditioned and quarrelsome, perverse, cross-grained
posioner - one who or that which poisons (lit. and fig.) + poisson (French) - fish + prisoner.
stained glass - transparent coloured glass, formed into decorative mosaics, used in windows (esp. of churches) + (Joyce wearing dark glasses) + Bédier: Le Roman de Tristan et Iseut x ('Préface' by Gaston Paris): (describes the heroes as) 'personnages d'un vieux vitrail' (French 'figures from an old stained glass window')).
goat - fig. A licentious man.
suckle - to cause to take milk from the breast or udder
nanna - forms of address used by a child to a grandmother; occas., a children's nurse
twitch - a sudden muscle spasm (especially one caused by a nervous condition) + twitchbell (Dialect) - earwig + William Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida III.3.174: (ULYSSES) 'For time is like fashionable host, / That slightly shakes his parting guest by th' hand, / And with his arms outstretched, as he would fly, / Grasps in the comer. The welcome ever smiles, / And farewell goes out sighing. Let not virtue seek / Remuneration for the thing it was. For beauty, wit, / High birth, vigor of bone, desert in service, / Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all / To envious and calumniating time. / One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, / That all with one consent praise new-born gawds, / Though they are made and moulded of things past, / And give to dust that is a little gilt / More laud than gilt o'er-dusted. (Ulysses is speaking of the readiness of mankind to forget past benefits, and to prize the glitter of a specious present rather than the true gold of that which has gone by. "The present eye praises the present object," says the wise old Greek, and there is one touch of nature that makes the whole world kin, that is, men's fondness for praising that which is new, though it be gilded dust, rather than that which is ancient, though it be gold that is somewhat dusty. "Then marvel not," he says to Achilles, "that all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax.")
oldworld - of or pertaining to the old world or ancient order of things; of or pertaining to the Old World or continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, as opposed to the New World or America.
kin - a group of persons descended from a common ancestor, and so connected by blood-relationship
thick and thin - adherence to some course, principle, or party, under all circumstances; that adheres or is ready to follow in all circumstances + through thick and thin - through all forms of obstacle that are put in one's way.
tubular bells - a series of tuned metal tubes of graded length vertically suspended and struck by hammers + doorbells + Jubal and Tubal Cain - Jubal was "father of all such as handle the harp and organ"; Tubal was "instructor of every ar tificer in brass and iron" (Genesis, 4.) Their brother Jabal was father of those who live in tents and have cattle.
patent - clear, evident, obvious
heresy + Hennessy brandy.
amorist - a devotee of love, esp. sexual love
nasturtium - a genus of cruciferous plants having a pungent taste, of which the best-known representative is the Watercress (N. officinale) + nasturtium (l) - nose-twisting, nose-torturing.
manny = many (obs.)
sinker - one who sinks (rare.) + thinker + sinner.
watery grave - the place in which a person lies drowned
diaspora - the body of Jewish Christians outside of Palestine + diaspora (gr) - dispersal + desperation
quin - five of the kind + concentus (l) - symphony, harmony + quincunx - an arrangement of five objects so that four occupy the corners of a rectangle and the fifth its centre.
Basilius - St. Basil the Great + basileus (gr) - king.
The Fianna flourished under the reign of Cormac mac Airt in the 3rd century AD + Enniscorthy (song): 'Dimetrius O'Flanigan McCarthy'.
camouflage - to conceal by or as by camouflage
to be after - to be in pursuit of, trying to get or do (a thing)
Rossiya (Russian) - Russia
alba - a dawn-song of the Provençal poets + Alba (olbe) (gael) - Scotland + Albania + ALBA - Ancient name for area in Latium, Italy, including the Alban Hills + Alba (l) - "White": mother-city of Rome (destroyed, never rebuilt).
touch - to 'come down upon', 'get at', or 'tap' (a person) for money, to succeed in getting money from, to obtain a loan or gift of money from (colloq.)
customary - commonly used or practised; usual, habitual
halp - obs. pa. tense of help + half
piece - a coin; popularly applied to an English gold coin
aged - old
pebbled - Of spectacles, etc.: made with or having the appearance of pebble lenses.
jolly - very, remarkably + Jonathan (Swift).
pidgin - a language as spoken in a simplified or altered form by non-natives, spec. as a means of communication between people not sharing a common language + pigeon
oeufs (French) - eggs + If ifs and ands were pots and pans, there'd be no trade for tinkers - Used as a humorous retort to instances of wishful thinking.
puffin - a sea-bird of the genus Fratercula, of the family Alcidæ or Auks
slander - to defame; to spread slanderous reports about, speak evil of, traduce (a person, etc.) + (notebook 1931): '*C* slanderise'.
eyot = ait - a little island
farout - remote, distant + Faroes.
how are you! (Irish) - don't be absurd!
Columbus + Saint Columba's monastic foundation on island of Iona + 'Columba' (Latin: columba) and 'Jonas' (Hebrew: yonah) both mean 'dove'.
wrecked - that has undergone or suffered shipwreck; destroyed, lost, or cast ashore by shipwreck + Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep (song) + Jonah in the belly of the Whale.
senior chief - second ship's officer
famose - famous + famos (ger) - splendid + famose (it) - famous (feminine plural).
in touch - near enough to touch or be touched, within reach (of), accessible (also fig.)
chef - the man who presides over the kitchen of a large household; a head cook
candle + hold a candle - to compare badly to an known authority, to be unfit even to hold a subordinate position.
sheer - pure
dare - an act of daring or defying; a defiance, challenge
pot still - a still to which heat is applied directly as to a pot, not by means of a steam-jacket; attrib. applied to whisky distilled in a pot-still
Spanish bean - a variety of broad bean; the scarlet runner + brean (bren) (gael) - fetid, rotten, putrid + FDV: Ah, he's a fine finegrand grandfine [jollytan] fellow with his potful of brains. He's like nobody else with that potful of brains breens on him.
knave - a boy or lad employed as a servant; hence, a male servant or menial in general; one of low condition (Freq. opposed to knight.); In playing-cards: The lowest court card of each suit, bearing the representation of a soldier or servant.
trifle - a matter of little value or importance + Clubs or Trèfles, Tréboles, Trefl, Clovers, Klöver, Kreuz (card suit) + 'Prince of triflers' (Swift).
Jonathan (Swift)
demented - out of one's mind, crazed, mad; infatuated + cemented → "he is a cemented brick, buck it all!" [059.24]
brick - a good fellow, one whom one approves for his genuine good qualities
filip - to urge on, stimulate; a strike with a finger as it is snapped from the end of the thumb + good fellows + Philip the Good (1396-1467) - duke of Burgundy about whom many medieval stories were told.