boomslang - venomous tree-dwelling African snake (from Afrikaans 'tree-snake') + boomen (Dutch) - to chat idly + slang - to utter or make use of slang, to rail in abusive or vulgar language.
plug - a piece of cake or twist tobacco cut off for chewing, etc.
contemplation - the action of beholding, or looking at with attention and thought.
fluctuation - the action or condition of passing more or less rapidly and suddenly from one state to another; a motion like that of the waves, an alternate rise and fall.
undificatio (l) - making of waves
filium (l) - a thread
loll - to recline or rest in a relaxed attitude, supporting oneself against something + (notebook 1924): 'lolling *A*'.
lease - to gather or pick up in small quantities, to scrape together; to tell lies.
lazer = lazar - a poor or diseased person, esp. a leper
eelfare - the migration of young eels up stream
yoick - to cry 'yoicks' (a call used in fox hunting to urge on the hounds; also occas. gen. as an exclamation of excitement or exultation.)
meander - Of a river, stream, etc.: To flow in meanders; to wind about in its course; Of a person: To wander deviously or aimlessly.
maritime - of, or pertaining to, the sea
grass widow - a married woman whose husband is absent from her
weeds - mourning clothes
twig - to perceive, discern, catch sight of; to recognize + twig (Anglo-Irish) - get the point, realise, understand, notice (from Anglo-Irish tuigim: 'I understand').
archdeaconess - the wife of an archdeacon
bonnet - a head-dress of women out of doors; distinguished from a hat (at present) mainly by the want of a brim, and by its covering no part of the forehead.
clarence - a close four-wheeled carriage with seats for four inside + Joyce's note: 'Avondale Clarence Grillroom'.
poisson (fr) - fish + proverb One man's meat is another man's poison.
Wit-upon-Crutches - poem once attributed to Swift. Master Bates is in Gulliver.
masturbate + Master Bates - a title repeatedly applied to Charley Bates, a character in 'Oliver Twist' by Charles Dickens.
sates (Anglo-Irish Pronunciation) - seats
face lift - a surgical operation for more youthful appearence
dope - to drug; to smear, daub
game - amusement, delight, fun, mirth, sport + FDV: But what was the game in her mixed bag? Shake it up do, do! & I promise I'll make it worth yr while & [I don't mean maybe. Tell me all. Tell me true.] I want to get it while it's fresh.
baggy - puffed or bulging out, hanging in loose folds + (notebook 1922-23): 'mixed bag' (some shooting term).
hatty - wearing showy hats; interested in wearing hats
tembo - an alcoholic drink made in East Africa, usu. from the sap of the coconut palm + tembo (Kiswahili) - palm wine; elephant.
tumbo (Kiswahili) - belly
pilipili (Kiswahili) - pepper
pepperpot - a small box, usually cylindrical, with a perforated lid, used for sprinkling powdered pepper; a thick soup.
saa (Kiswahili) - watch, clock, hour
taa (Kiswahili) - lamp, lantern, light; a kind of large flat edible fish
bizaa (Kiswahili) - merchandise, trade goods + bizari (Kiswahili) - a spice + bizza (Hebrew) - plunder.
plunder - to take (goods, valuables, etc.) with illegal force, or as an enemy; to appropriate wrongfully, embezzle.
efter - after + efter (Danish) - after + song Just before the Battle, Mother + song After the Ball.
frisk - full of life and spirit, brisk + fresh + frisk (Danish) - fresh + (notebook 1922-23): 'get it while it's fresh'.
(notebook 1924): 'bet my beard'
worthwhile - being worth the time or effort spent
poach - to put into a bag
worth one's while - worth doing, profitable
and I don't mean maybe - I am positive
good for - Of a promissory note, draft, etc., drawn for so much; valid for; well able to accomplish so much + goodfor (Slang) - promissory note.
spey = spay - to operate upon (a female, esp. the female of certain animals) so as to remove the ovaries and destroy the reproductive power + say
tale - to say, speak, utter, tell
arundo (l) - reed, cane
lyne = line + FDV: Well, she pattered around like Santa Claus with a Xmas box apiece for each & every one of her children childer & they all around youths & maidens, [stinkers & heelers, all her natural sons and daughters, 1001,] chipping her raising a jeer or cheer every time she'd dip in her bag sack & out with her maundy money.
roume (Finnish) - stream
patter - to run with a rapid succession of short quick sounding steps
swing - to go along with undulating or swaying movement
sidle - to move or go sideways or obliquely; to edge along, esp. in a furtive or unobtrusive manner, or while looking in another direction.
dribble - to propel by successive slight taps
moss - a bog, swamp, a peat bog
agin = again (against) + Thomas Moore: Irish Melodies: song Where is the Slave: 'The friends we've tried Are by our side, And the foe we hate before us'.
curare - a blackish-brown resinous bitter substance, obtained as an extract from Strychnos toxifera, and other plants of tropical S. America; used by the Indians to poison their arrows.
weser = wizard + where + (notebook 1924): 'which way to turn *A*'.
chatta - umbrella + hoochie - a shelter or dwelling (esp. one that is insubstantial or temporary) + song Chattanooga Choo Choo (song published in 1941?).
ain - one, own
chi (Chinese) - chicken
Santa Claus - In nursery language, the name of an imaginary personage, who is supposed, in the night before Christmas day, to bring presents for children, a stocking being hung up to receive his gifts.
cree - to soften (grain) in a pulpy mass by boiling; to create + cri (fr) - a cry.
puny - of small growth and feeble vitality; undersized and weakly + (notebook 1924): 'call of the pale & puny'.
encircle - to form a circle round, surround
reconcile - restored to friendship, harmony, etc.
Reim (ger) - rhyme + Remus
lech - a look, glance
dart - a light spear or javelin; also applied to pointed missiles in general, including arrows + (notebook 1930): 'R Dart'.
spatter - a spatterdash or gaiter
Christmas box - a present or gratuity given at Christmas + According to the myth, Pandora opened a jar (pithos) in modern accounts referred to as "Pandora's box", releasing all the evils of mankind— greed, vanity, slander, envy, pining— leaving only Hope inside once she had closed it again. The Pandora myth first appears in lines 560-612 of Hesiod's (ca. 8th-7th centuries BC) epic poem, the Theogony, without ever giving the woman a name. After humans have received the gift of fire from Prometheus, an angry Zeus decides to give men a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given. He commands Hephaestus to mould from earth the first woman, a "beautiful evil" whose descendants would torment the race of men. After Hephaestus does so, Athena dressed her in a silvery gown, an embroidered veil, garlands and an ornate crown of gold. This woman goes unnamed in the Theogony, but is presumably Pandora, whose myth Hesiod revisited in Works and Days. When she first appears before gods and mortals, "wonder seized them" as they looked upon her. But she was "sheer guile, not to be withstood by men." + Hesiodic myth continued: Works and Days
apiece - for each, to each
aisch = ash; ask + each
iveryone (Anglo-Irish Pronunciation) - everyone
childer - children
Pandora ("all gifted") - the Greek Eve. Anna Livia is Eve-Pandora-Leda-Nemesis when she distributes gifts (Danish gift, "poison") to her children "for evil and ever." "Her Pandora's box contains the ills flesh is heir to" (Letters, I, 213) (Glasheen, Adaline / Third census of Finnegans wake).
Gabe (ger) - gift + gave
fleetly - swiftly, quickly
matt = mat - an article intended to be placed near a door for persons entering to wipe their shoes upon.
porch - an exterior structure forming a covered approach to the entrance of a building.
rivulet - a small stream or river, a streamlet
polynautes (gr) - with many sailors or ships
(to leap, fall) out of the pan into the fire - to escape from one evil only to fall into a greater one + pyr (gr) - fire.
juvenile lead - an actor who plays the leading youthful part in a play, etc.
ingenue - an artless, innocent girl or young woman; also, the representation of such a character on the stage, or the actress who plays the part + ingenuina (l) - belonging to an ingenua (free born woman).
slime - soft glutinous mud
slum - a street, alley, court, etc., situated in a crowded district of a town or city and inhabited by people of a low class or by the very poor. Chiefly pl.
artesian well - well in which a perpendicular boring into a synclinal fold or basin of the strata produces a constant supply of water rising spontaneously to the surface of the ground.
welling - the flowing forth or out
rickets - a disease caused by vitamin D deficiency, especially incident to children, characterized by softening of the bones, especially of the spine, and consequent distortion, bow-legs, and emaciation. Technically known as rachitis.
BIRD'S NEST INSTITUTION - Now in Blackrock, it was formerly in Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire). A Protestant boys' home for the care and conversion of destitute Roman Catholics. Its inmates also known as "Smyly boys."
vicereine - the wife of a viceroy
levee - a morning assembly held by a prince or person of distinction; a miscellaneous assemblage of visitors, irrespective of the time of day; applied (U.S.) to the President's receptions.
vivi (it) - live!; you live
Annchen (ger) - little Ann
vieillot (fr) - oldish
high life - full of life or spirit
susurrare (l) - to whisper + susurrus (l) - a whisper.
Ausones (gr) - primitive inhabitans of southern Italy; in Roman poetry: Italians, Romans, Latins + Ausonia si dulcis (l) - Italy so pleasant! (O Hehir, Brendan; Dillon, John M. / A classical lexicon for Finnegans wake).
chip - to break off (by a sharp blow with anything hard) small fragments from wood, stone, or other hard substances.
chir - an Indian tree + cheer