contemptible - worthy only of being despised and rejected + Old Contemptibles - British Expeditionary Force, 1914.
delouse - to remove lice from; to free from something unpleasant
pleb - plebeian, one of the common people
Wicklow + SDV: Again there was a hope that people treating him with comparative contempt might, after first giving him a roll in the dust pity & forgive him but he was born low and sank lower till he sank out of sight.
alow - to lower, bring down, lessen
stank - p. of stink
Belial - the spirit of evil personified: used from early times as a name for the Devil or one of the fiends, and by Milton as the name of one of the fallen angels; Semitic god of the underworld, identified with Satan.
nichil - nothing + (Mick had beaten Nick 1:0) + (Saint Michael and Lucifer).
(not yet) [003.04-.14]
(Eve from Adam's rib) + (victory song).
blood and thunder - bloodshed and violence + (Adam and Eve after Fall from the Garden of Eden).
emp - abbr. of emperor, empress + Emperor from Corsica (Napoleon).
arth (Welsh) - bear + Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.
Angleterre (French) - England + Engel (ger) - angel + (Museyroom) [008.09]
Sachsen (ger) - 'Saxons' + (Mutt and Jute) [016.10]
judder - to shake or vibrate rapidly and intensively + Jude (ger) - Jew + Jyder (Danish) - 'Jutlanders' + Jute on the mound [015.29]
witchy - resembling or characteristic of a witch + Ast (Greek: Isis): throne & nbt or Hwt (Greek: Nephthys): Lady of the House + (Prankquean) [021.15] + mishe mishe (voice from afire).
warre - war
strike fire - to produce (fire, a spark) by percussion, esp. by the percussion of flint and steel + "heather on Howth often on fire" (Ulysses.13.1139).
arcobaleno (it) - rainbow (symbol of peace)
forespeak - to foretell, predict; to speak forth, to proclaim
peace upon earth (Noah and God) + "rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface".
cleftfooted - having a cloven foot + leftfooted - awkward, clumsy.
Himmel (ger) - heaven
Tumpel (ger) - pool, puddle + tumble (i.e. Lucifer falls).
blameful - guilty
bound - destined, certain + (Adam falls).
from the egg to the apples (Latin: 'ab ovo usque ad mala') - From first to last. The Romans began their "dinner" with eggs, and ended with fruits called "mala"; "Ab ovo" (Latin: 'from the beginning, the origin, the egg') is a reference to one of the twin eggs of Leda and Zeus disguised as a swan from which Helen was born. Had Leda not laid the egg, Helen would not have been born, so Paris could not have eloped with her, so there would have been no Trojan War etc.
poursuivre (fr) - to pursue, follow
"When a warrior has acquired patience he is on his way to will. He knows how to wait. His death sits with him on his mat, they are friends. His death advises him, in mysterious ways, how to choose, how to live strategically. And the warrior waits! I would say that the warrior learns without any hurry because he knows he is waiting for his will; and one day he succeeds in performing something ordinarily quite impossible to accomplish. He may not even notice his extraordinary deed. But as he keeps on performing impossible acts, or as impossible things keep on happening to him, he becomes aware that a sort of power is emerging. A power that conies out of his body as he progresses on the path of knowledge. At first it is like an itching on the belly, or a warm spot that cannot be soothed; then it becomes a pain, a great discomfort. Sometimes the pain and discomfort are so great that the warrior has convulsions for months, the more severe the convulsions the better for him. A fine power is always heralded by great pain. When the convulsions cease the warrior notices he has strange feelings about things. He notices that he can actually touch anything he wants with a feeling that comes out of his body from a spot right below or right above his navel. That feeling is the will, and when he is capable of grabbing with it, one can rightfully say that the warrior is a sorcerer, and that he has acquired will. (Carlos Castaneda: A Separate Reality)
Humpty
Dumpty (nursery rhyme): 'Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall' + Where there's a will there's a way
(proverb) + "The obvious technical and artistic mastery of Early Kingdom
temples presupposes clear thinking of some sort. But what kind of 'logic'
dictates a preference for working with difficult material? To comprehend the
motives of the Egyptians, we must look away from logic...What could that reason
be? The Egyptian artist was not free to choose his material or his subject.
Thus, it would seem that
those in command deliberately chose difficult mediums in order to create
difficulties for their artists. As I have mentioned, it is universal law,
dictated by the necessities of number, that achievement takes place only in the
face of commensurate opposition." (John Anthony West: Serpent In The Sky The
High Wisdom Of Ancient Egypt)
still - a calm, stillness, a still pool (obs.); an aparatus for distillation, a distillery
millstream - a stream whose flow is utilized to run a mill
lap - to drink greedily up (like an animal)
bier - beer + "Rot a peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight"
rill - a small stream; a brook, runnel, rivulet + rill's trill.
liff = live + laughs
His Majesty
daft - of unsound mind, crazy, insane, mad
laff = laugh
TORY ISLAND - Island, 7 miles off North coast of County Donegal; ancient haunt of pirates, esp. "Balor of the Baleful Eye," who had one eye whose glance could kill. The island was noted for its various clays, used for heat-resistant pottery + Tory and Whig.
douze = douse - to plunge vigorously in water, to throw water over + douze (fr) - twelve + dozen (*O*).
dumm (ger) - dumb, stupid
railler (French) - jeer at; jest + rail - utter abusive language.
hip - an exclamation used (usually repeated thrice) to introduce a united cheer
chirp - to talk in sprightly and lively tones, to give utterance to cheerful feelings
ballat = ballad
perce = perceive; pierce + perce-oreille (French) - earwig.
oreille - a pillow + Ballad of Persse O'Reilly [044.24]
fortunous - fortuitous, fortunate, successful + O fortuna casualis (l) - O accidental fate + O fortunata causalitas (l) - O lucky causality + O Fortunatus Casus (l) - O Fortunate Fall (continuation of hymn celebrating Adam's fall [O felix culpa] because it elicited the Incarnation).
lefty - left handed
take the cake - to carry off the honours, rank first; often used ironically + cherub - an angel of the second order whose gift is knowledge; usually portrayed as a winged child.
cloven hoof - ascribed in pagan mythology to the god Pan, and thence in Christian mythology to the Devil, and often used allusively as the indication of Satan, Satanic agency, or temptation.
darky = darkie - negro + FDV: He never could be got dragged to play rational national flesh & blood games such as hat in the ring, Shiela Harnett & the her cow, here's the fat to grease the priest's boots & it's now notoriously known that how when on that surprisingly bloody Sunday when the grand germogall fight battle all star bout was gaily raging between those fighting men extraordinary & Irish eyes [of blue] were smiling he fled for his bare life corked himself up in his inkbottle much badly the worse for drink and hid under a bedtick with his face enveloped in an overcoat semiparalysed by [all] the shemozzle where under the sacred shield of coward with his face & trousers changing changed colour every time a rifle spoke gat croaked.
tug - to move by pulling hard, to drag + SDV: No force could tug him out Darkie never done tug that fellow out to play flesh & blood children of nature's rational games like pickanninny hat in the ring, Sheila Harnett & her cow, put the wind up the other fellow, Healy Baba & the 40 Thieves, here's the fat to grease the priest's boots, and it is now notoriously known how on that surprisingly bloody Unity Sunday when the grand germogall all star bout was gaily the rage between our fighting men extraordinary & eyes of Irish blue were smiling up their sleeves rank funk getting the better of him, the scut fled for his bare life, without striking having struck one blow, & corked himself up tight in his inkbottle house badly the worse for drink & when he hid under a bedtick with his face enveloped in an a dead warrior's overcoat moaning feebly that his punishment was more than a nigger man could bear, and hemiparalysed by all the shemozzle, his face cheeks & trousers changing colour every time a gat croaked. How is that for low, ladies and gentlemen laymen? Why, whole continents rang with his lowness!
coon - rakun; negro; a rustic, eccentric or undignified person
excretory - rel. to excretion (the action of casting out of the body that which has been separated by any of the organs; esp. evacuation of the bowels)
misoxene - a hater of strangers + misogynic.
gassy - characterized by 'gas' or empty talk + Ghazi Power - Irish journalist [521.22]
flash and blood - to be human, have human feelings or weaknesses
nescimus (l) - we do not know + nemo (l) - nobody + nescimus neminem (l) - we do not know nobody (O Hehir, Brendan; Dillon, John M. / A classical lexicon for Finnegans wake).
piccaninny - Offensive term for a Black child.
honey (Slang) - semen + rubber (Slang) - condom.
rubbers - In various games of skill or chance, a set of (usually) three games, the last of which is played to decide between the parties when each has gained one + children's game: hornies and robbers (i.e. cops and robbers).
element - the surroundings in which one feels at home, ordinary range of activity
*K* and *S* + George du Maurier: Trilby: 'Vincent sang. "Old Joe kicking up behind and afore and the yaller gal a-kicking up behind old Joe".