see eye to eye - to agree + aye - yes.
nose to nose - closely face to face, directly opposite + noes - pl. of no.
Nemci (Serbian) - Germans + Nemc (Albanian) - Austrian, Hungarian, German.
Bucharest - capital of Romania + búkur (Albanian) - beautiful + rahat (Albanian) - quiet.
mal (Albanian) - mountain
Belgrade - Serbian BEOGRAD ("White Fortress"), capital of Serbia
tot - a note, jotting or comment written down
Schuppe (ger) - [fish]scale + nisteln (ger) - nestle + shqupni (Albanian) - Albania (Pronunciation 'schtschupni').
incunabula - books produced in the infancy of the art of printing; spec. those printed before 1500; the earliest stages or first traces in the development of anything + incunabula (l) - cradle.
cardinal points - the four points of the horizon (or the heavens) which lie in the direction of the earth's two poles (cardines), and of sunrise and sunset respectively, the north, south, east, and west points.
for all that - notwithstanding (that), although
ruled - according to rule, regular; marked with parallel stright lines
traced - outlined, drawn, written
Joyce's note: 'doubtful points' → Crépieux-Jamin: Les Éléments de l'Écriture des Canailles 194: 'the hesitant and slow writing of an idiot of little education... Since he does not know how to spell, he stops at almost every word, resting the pen, in the meantime, on the paper, whereby the points where there should be none'.
pretty - ingeniously or cleverly made or done
checker - a chess-board; a chequered pattern; marking like that of a chess-board.
lampblack - a pigment consisting of almost pure carbon in a state of fine division + Sullivan, The Book of Kells 60: 'The black is lamp black, or possibly fish-bone black'.
blackthorn - a walking-stick or cudgel made of the stem of blackthorn tree.
crossing - a drawing of lines across, intersection, making of the sign of the cross; opposing, blocking of thwarting.
homeborn - home produced
shillelagh - an Irish cudgel of blackthorn or oak
calligraphy - beautiful or fair writing as a product; handwriting generally
savagery - the condition of being wild or uncivilized
barbarism - absence of culture; uncivilized ignorance and rudeness
cannier - comp. of canny (clever, knowing, wise)
domestic economy - the administration of the concerns and resources of any community or establishment with a view to orderly conduct and productiveness.
thitherways - in that direction
end to end - with the ends in contact, lengthwise (in the direction of the length, longitudinal) + "ox-turning": writing alternate lines in opposite directions, description and imitation of boustrephodon.
litter - odds and ends, fragments and leavings lying about, rubbish + letters + Budge: The Book of the Dead lxxiv: (of Osiris) '"the god who is the lord of the ladder"'.
slitter - to slide, glide + Slattery's Mounted Foot - Percy French's song about comic Irish peasant warriors, extravagant in heroic wish, cowardly in act (in the song they come down from the mountains, go up again).
tham - them; that; the
Hum. Lit. = Humaniores Literae (l) - Humane Letters, the Humanities + Hamlet.
sand - sand used to dry wet ink marks + FDV: Then, in addition to the original sand, pounce powder or soft rag, it has acquired accretions of terricious matter while loitering in the past.
pounce powder - a fine powder, used to prevent the ink from spreading in writing over an erasure or on unsized paper, and also to prepare the surface of parchment to receive writing; a fine powder, dusted over a perforated pattern sheet to transfer the design to the object beneath.
papier buvard (French ) - blotting paper (related to French buveur: drinker) + (notebook 1924): 'drinking paper' + Crépieux-Jamin: Les Éléments de l'Écriture des Canailles 221: 'The reader can easily obtain a sample of indistinct writing by writing on very slightly damp paper, or on blotting paper'.
vet - a veterinary surgeon; a doctor of medicine (slang.); veteran + vet (Albanian) - person.
hang in - to persist in spite of adversity (as of a boxer app. facing defeat); to hold out or endure; also, to wait around + Anhanger (ger) - trailer (a rail or road car designed to be drawn along by a motor vehicle; now usu. an unpowered vehicle towed behind a car or truck, etc.); adherent (one who adheres to a person, party, or system; a partizan, follower, or supporter) + hângër (Albanian) - to eat.
sot - one who commonly or habitually drinks to excess, a soaker + Aussatz (ger) - leprosy, itch + sot (Albanian) - today.
social - a social gathering or party esp. one held by members of a club or association.
ftoftë (Albanian) - cold
odë (Albanian) - room
cheery - in excellent spirits, lively + chair + qiri (Albanian) - candle.
splutter - to scatter ink in writing + splintered - broken into splinters; shattered.
carraig (korig) (gael) - rock + karrigë (Albanian) - chair, seat.
dorcha (durukhe) (gael) - dark + darkë (Albanian) - supper, dinner.
drisheen - a kind of sausage made from sheep's blood, milk, and seasoning + duisin (dishin) (gael) - dozen + -een (Anglo-Irish) - (diminutive).
ve, voe (Albanian) - egg
God's quantity - a large amount, an abundance + gotë (Albanian) - drinking glass, tumbler.
raki (Albanian) - brandy
portogal (Albanian) - an orange
buk = book + bukë (Albanian) - bread.
sofa - a long, stuffed seat with a back and ends or end, used for reclining + sofër (Albanian) - table, dining table + sefer (Hebrew) - book.
softball - a soft globule of sugar formed (e.g. by dropping into water) as a means of testing that the mass of sugar being boiled has reached a certain stage.
motër, motra (Albanian) - sister
babies + bir (Albanian) - child; son + bije (Albanian) - children; daughter.
nippy (Slang) - a Lyons' tea-shop girl + nip (Albanian) - nephew.
Messer (ger) - knife + mbesë (Albanian) - niece.
acquire - to receive
accretion - the adhesion of external matter or things to anything so as to increase it.
whilst - while
terra (l) - earth + Tiresias - in the Odyssey, a blind Theban soothsayer who, like Bloom, was both a man and a woman (Glasheen, Adaline / Third census of Finnegans wake).
teatime - the customary time for tea, late afternoon or early evening + FDV: The teastain is a study in itself and its importance in establishing the identity of the writer complex (for if the hand was one the minds were more than so) will be appreciated by remembering that after in the time before & after the battle of the Boyne it was the custom not to sign letters always. For why sign when every word, letter, penstroke, space, is a perfect signature in its own way. A person is known more by his personality, habits of dress, movements, response to appeals for charity rather than by his or her boots.
terminal - a final syllable, letter, or word; a termination
tag - label, epithet; a final curl, twirl or fluorish added to a letter, the tail end
mummer - one who mutters or murmurs
cosy - sheltering, keeping warm, in which one is warm and comfortable; warmly intimate or friendly; sentimental.
brown study - gloomy meditation
to oneself - to or at one's own disposal, free from the approaches or action of others.
thumb print - the impression or mark of the inner surface of the top joint of the thumb, made with ink or otherwise upon a receptive surface.
trade mark
trait - a stroke made with pen or pencil; a short line + portrait
artless - constructed without art or skill, rude, clumsy; unartificial, natural, simple.
establish - to introduce and secure the identity or position of (a character, set, etc.).
complexus - an interwoven complicated aggregate of parts, an complicated system.
Crépieux-Jamin: Les Éléments de l'Écriture des Canailles 211: (of a handwriting sample) 'One could not find a better example of the difference between agitation and activity' [(notebook 1924): 'active v agitated'].
battle of the Boyne - (July 1 [July 11, New Style], 1690), a victory for the forces of King William III of England over the former king James II, fought on the banks of the River Boyne in Ireland. James, a Roman Catholic, had been forced to abdicate in 1688 and, with the help of the French and the Irish, was attempting to win back his throne.