whither - whether
transocean - passing or extending across the ocean + TRANSITION - Literary journal founded in Paris by Eugene and Maria Jolas in 1927. As "Work in Progress," Finnegans Wake was published serially from the first issue, and continued sporadically through 1938.
alarm - to arouse to a sense of danger, to excite the attention or suspicion of, to put on the alert + clamour - to utter loud and continued cries or calls.
latter = laughter + letter + Thalatta! Thalatta! (gr) - Sea! Sea! (shout of Xenophon's men when they at last sighted the Black Sea on the retreat from Persia).
macfarlane - a heavy caped overcoat + MacFarlane's Lament - air to T. Moore's "Shall the Harp Then Be Silent" + Mac Pharthalain (mok faralan) (gael) - son of Bartholomew.
lack - Of a quantity in measurement: Short, wanting
league - an itinerary measure of distance (about 3 miles)
BARTHOLOMEW DEEP - One of 5 deeps in Pacific Ocean close to coast of South America [(notebook 1922-23): 'Bartholomew'] + Pharthalan (paralan) (gael) - 2nd colonizer; buried at Tallaght, Co. Dublin.
Achtung! (ger) - attention!
pozor (Russian) - attention!
besight - consideration, determination + besee - fig. To look to, give heed to, attend to; trans. To look at, look to, behold; to see + vicekonge besøger smukke unge skolepiger (Danish) - Viceroy visits beautiful young schoolgirls.
smoky - fig. Having the obscuring, objectionable, or unsubstantial qualities of smoke (obs.) + smuk (Danish) - beautiful + Schmuck (ger) - jewelry, decoration.
pige (Danish) - 'girl', hence Pigeschoolies = schoolgirls
Tri Paistini Eireannaigh (tri pashtini ereni) (gael) - Three little Irish Children.
Eventyr med (Danish) - 'adventure with'
LOCHLANN (LOUGHLINN) - The ancient Irish name ("country of lakes") for the Country of the Ostmen, i.e., Norway, and for the Scands themselves + Lochlann (Anglo-Irish) = Lochlannach (lokhlenokh) (gael) - Scandinavian, Norwegian.
Fathach I Fiounn-isgehaven (Fathach i [bPairc an] Fionn-uisce) (gael) - Giant in Clear-Water [Field] (agnlic. Phoenix [Park]) + Eachtra Tri Paistini Eireannaigh le Fathach Lochlannach i bPairc an Fionn-uisce (gael) - Adventures of Three little Irish Children with a Norwegian Giant in Phoenix Park + i finnske haven (Danish) - in Finnish park.
bannalanna (Anglo-Irish) = bean na leanna (ban ne lane) (gael) - ale-woman
BALLYHOOLY - Town, County Cork, on Blackwater River. Robert Martin of Ross, nicknamed "Ballyhooly," wrote Bits of Blarney, containing the song "The Ballyhooly Blue Ribbon Amy," about a temperance movement in a notoriously intemperate town. The town was known for its faction fights. "Balhyhooly" is proverbial for "a tonguelashing" + ballyhooly (Anglo-Irish) - a tongue-lashing (after Ballyhooly, town, County Cork, notorious for faction fights).
buddaree (Anglo-Irish) - a rich vulgar farmer (from bodaire (Anglo-Irish) - churl).
BOLEYVOGUE (BOOLAVOGUE) - Town, 8 miles North-East of Enniscorthy, County Wexford. English troops burned RC chapel and other buildings, 26 May 1798, setting off the Wexford insurrection. "Boulavogue" is a song about the rising and Father Murphy, Irish rebel and parish priest of Boulavogue; "Bullavogue" in Ir-Eng means a rough bully of a fellow.
contemporary - a newspaper contemporary with another
notwithstanding - without prevention or obstruction from or by
morrowing
- morning, dawning +
FDV: But on the morrow morn of the
suicide
suicidal murder [unrescued] &
expatriated half past eight
¼
to 9 o'clock saw the unfailing spike of smoke plume punctual from his
chimneypipe
7th gable and ten thirsty p.m., the lamps
of maintenance lighted for the long night a suffusion of the
leadlight panes.
unrescued - unsaved; undelivered; unliberated
expatriate - an expatriated person, a person who lives in another country
oaktree - oak
onto - to a position or point on or upon
duke - cheaf, leader + dyke = dike.
beaver - an amphibious rodent; the female genitals or the pubic area in general
liquidambar - sweet gum tree; a resinous gum which exudes from the bark of the tree Liquidambar styraciflua (called also copalm balsam) + Fitzpatrick: The Trees of Ireland 598: 'Templeton introduced... Canadian Maple, and Liquidamber'.
exude - to discharge through the pores
Fitzpatrick: The Trees of Ireland 597: 'At Moira, County Down, a number of exotics were planted'.
balsam poplar - a North American poplar with buds coated with an aromatic resin + Fitzpatrick: The Trees of Ireland 599: 'Balsam Poplars at Ballyweg, County Kildare'.
PARTEEN - Townland and village, County Clare, 2½ miles North of Limerick on Shannon River; pairtin, Ir "little port." This stretch of the Shannon between Limerick and Killaloe was known for the best salmon fishing in Ireland before the Ardnacrusha dam was built + Fitzpatrick: The Trees of Ireland 604: 'Parteen-a-lax, County Clare. Miss Gwynn. Deep limestone soil'.
limestone - a rock which consists chiefly of carbonate of lime, and yields lime when burnt. (The crystalline variety of limestone is marble.)
road (obs.) - to traverse (a way)
abies magnifica - noble fir + Fitzpatrick: The Trees of Ireland 608: 'Abies magnifica... Red Fir'.
Fitzpatrick: The Trees of Ireland 608: 'Abies nobilis... The Noble Fir'.
implore - to beg or pray for (aid, favour, pardon, etc.) with tearful or touching entreaties.
recipiency - sensitivity, ability to receive
infallible - not liable to prove false, erroneous, or mistaken; that unfailingly holds good.
spike - a stiff sharp-pointed object or part + Popes are elected by a "Conclave" or electoral assembly of cardinals; each day the smoke of burning voting papers from a Vatican chimney signals to waiting crowds that there is no election yet.
punctual - direct, explicit, definite; up to time, in good time; not late.
gable - the triangular-topped end wall of a building; a gable-end.
Quintus Centimachus was the Latin name for Conn of the Hundred Battles. Porphyry, the 3rd-century commentator on Plotinus, wrote a treatise on abstinence (from animal foods) + quintus (l) - fifth + centum (l) - hundred + mache (gr) - battle.
porphyroid = porphyry - a beautiful and very hard rock anciently quarried in Egypt; resembling or akin to porphyry + porphyroeides (gr) - purply, purplish.
TOURS DE BEURRE - The "Butter Towers" of the late middle ages in Rouen and other cities are supposed to have been built with money raised by dispensations from fasting. The reference in context seems to be to the smoke rising from a chimney of the Vatican.
(notebook 1922-23): 'ten thirsty'
lastingness - long existance, enduringness
en caecos harauspices! (l) - behold the blind soothsayers! + caecus (l) - blind + haruspice = haruspex - one of a class of ancient Roman soothsayers, of Etruscan origin, who performed divination by inspection of the entrails of victims, and in other ways.
annos longos patimur (l) - we endure long years (O Hehir, Brendan; Dillon, John M. / A classical lexicon for Finnegans wake).
maintenance - the action of keeping in effective condition, in working order, in repair, etc. + (notebook 1922-23): 'lamp of maintenance (Tc H)' → The Times 15 Dec 1922, 9/4: 'of "Toc H"... to celebrate the eighth birthday of this wonderful fellowship... will be the lighting by his Royal Highness of the lamps of maintenance which are to be presented to delegates from fifty branches. The lamp of maintenance is a replica of the old Christian catacomb lamp, except that the handle has been designed in the form of a cross to represent part of the arms of Ypres' (lamps lighted to commemorate dead).
beacon - a burning cresset raised on a pole, or fixed at the top of a building.
innerhalb (ger) - inside
ziggurat - a staged tower of pyramid form in which each successive storey is smaller than that below it, so as to leave a terrace all round; an Assyrian or Babylonian temple-tower [(notebook 1924): 'ziggurat'].
brevet (Archaic) - official document granting some privileges (Obsolete authoritative message, especially a papal indulgence).
wyvern - a representation of a chimerical animal imagined as a winged dragon with two feet like those of an eagle, and a serpent-like, barbed tail.
tawny - name of a composite colour, consisting of brown with a preponderance of yellow or orange.
song Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
outstanding - prominent, conspicuous, eminent; striking
loll - a pet; an idle person
litten - lighted
suffusion - the action of suffusing a surface with fluid, moisture, or colour.
Fionn-ghlais (finglash) (gael) - Clear Stream; village and stream N. of Dublin; anglic. Finglas
transom - a window divided by a transom (a horizontal bar of wood or stone across a mullioned window, dividing it in height); also a small window above the lintel of a door.
leadlight - a window in which small panes are fixed in leaden cames
edifice - a building, usually a large and stately building, as a church, palace, temple, or fortress + FDV: Therefore let it be neither said nor thought that the inhabitant of that sacred edifice was a parable merely nor [more strictly] H.C.E. a nonens. Not one of his many contemporaries seriously doubted or for long of his real legitimate existence.
venter - the belly, the abdomen; a vendor; one who utters or gives vent to a statement, doctrine, etc., esp. of an erroneous, malicious, or objectionable nature.
Bauch (ger) - stomach + bauch - inferior.
backword - expressing 'in the contrary direction'
tris - - thrice, tripled
clue - that which points the way, or indicates a solution, or puts one on the track of a discovery; a key.
Weltraum (ger) - space
dodecagonal - of or pertaining to a dodecagon; twelve-sided + dode (Dutch) - dead.
sammen - together + samliv (Danish) - 'cohabitation'.
dijk (Dutch) - dyke
authenticity - the quality of being authentic, genuineness
aliquant - contained in another, but not dividing it evenly, and so opposed to aliquot + aliquitudinis (l) - of somethingness + aliquid (l) - someone, something + aliquis (l) - of some consequence.
canonicity - canonical acceptability + Joyce's note: 'canonicity'; Apocryphal New Testament xvii: Let us say that the best external test of the canonicity of a writing is, whether or not it was read in the public worship of Christian congregations which were in communion with the generality of other Christian congregations. MS 47474-162, TsILS: to doubt of his legitimate ^+canonicity+^ existence | JJA 46:063 | 1926-7 |
tesseract - the four dimensional analogue of a cube
quick - living persons (chiefly in echoes of Acts x. 42 or the Apostles' Creed, in phr. quick and dead.)
to sing dumb - to be silent
ulme - an elm tree + Ulm (German) = ulmus (l) - elm tree.