elbow + Elbe - one of the major rivers of Central Europe.
cute - attractive, pretty; shrewd, ingenious, cunning
saise = seize (v.) + tu sais (fr) - you know + Saisi - river in Tanzania + Sais - an ancient Egyptian town in the Western Nile Delta on the Canopic branch of the Nile. It was the provincial capital of Sap-Meh, the fifth nome of Lower Egypt and became the seat of power during the Twenty-fourth dynasty of Egypt (c. 732–720 BC) and the Saite Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt (664–525 BC) during the Late Period. Its Ancient Egyptian name was Zau. The city's patron goddess was Neith, whose cult is attested as early as the 1st Dynasty, ca. 3100- 3050 BCE. Neith was a goddess of war and of hunting and had as her symbol, two arrows crossed over a shield. Her name also may be interpreted as meaning water. In time, this led to her being considered as the personification of the primordial waters of creation. She is identified as a great mother goddess in this role as a creator. In Plato's Timaeus and Critias (around 395 B.C., 200 years after the visit by the Greek Legislator Solon), Sais is the city in which Solon (Solon visited Egypt in 590 B.C.) receives the story of Atlantis.
quirk - a clever or witty turn or conceit, a verbal trick + quick
bicker - a drinking cup of any material; a skirmish, fight + 'Little Nancy Etticoat' (nursery rhyme): 'The longer she stands the shorter she grows' (answer: a lighted candle).
slick - slippery; marked by skill in deception + (notebook 1924): '*A* the longer she lives the shorter she grows' ('longer she lives' replaces a cancelled 'more she had') → Riddle: 'The longer it lives the shorter it grows' (answer: a lighted candle).
tagus - a commander, leader, ruler, chief + Tagus - longest river on the Iberian Peninsula + take us + Joyce's note, Penelope: 'God bless us & save us'.
werra = very + Werra (Anglo-Irish) - Blessed Virgin Mary (interjection; from Irish, a Mhuire: Mary) + Werra - river in central Germany.
earth + Ourthe - river in the Ardennes, Belgium.
lamb + Lambay Island, north-east of Dublin.
battering ram - an ancient military engine employed for battering down walls, consisting of a beam of wood, with a mass of iron at one end, sometimes in the form of a ram's head.
apt - having a habitual tendency or predisposition (to do something) + Epte - river in Normandy, France.
Liddel Water - river running through southern Scotland and northern England + Love Me Little, Love Me Long (song).
length + Linth - Swiss river + FDV: Go away! No more? The height of your knee.
hough - tendons at the back of the knee, the adjacent back part of the thigh
ploughboy - a boy who leads the team of oxen or horses that draw a plough; hence, a boy of the rustic labouring class + FDV: She wore a pair of plowman's broadbottom nailstudded boots,
stud - to insert or place (a number of things) at intervals over a surface
clog - a shoe with a thick wooden sole protected by a rim of metal + Joyce's note: '*A* clogs'.
(notebook 1922-23): 'garden shoes (a garden in themselves)' → Irish Times 18 Nov 1922, 9/4: 'Elbow Grease': 'Taking over the boot-cleaning department was my happiest idea. Surrounded by a few pairs of my own, a couple of the wife's, my son's garden shoes (so-called because they are a garden in themselves)'
sugarloaf hat - a conical hat, pointed, rounded or flat at the top, worn during the Tudor and Stuart periods and after the French Revolution + SUGARLOAF - 2 mountains South of Bray, County Wicklow.
gaudy - excessively or glaringly showy, tastelessly gay or fine + quivery - that shakes, trembling + Guadalquivir - second longest river in Spain.
gorse - the prickly shrub Ulex europæus
ornament + Arno - river in the Tuscany region of Italy.
streamer - a long flowing ribbon, feather, etc. attached to some article of dress + Iliad XIV: (of Hera preparing to beguile Zeus) 'and she girdled it with a girdle arrayed with a hundred tassels, and she set earrings in her pierced ears'.
guilder - a gold coin formerly current in the Netherlands and parts of Germany + Guil - river in southeastern France + FDV: a sugarloaf hat with a sunrise peak of & a band of gorse & with a golden pin through it,
eyeglasses - The name is by usage restricted to a pair of lenses to be held in the hand or kept in position by a spring on the nose; those which are secured by pieces of metal placed over the ears being called spectacles + Owlglass - The name of a German jester of mediæval times, the hero of an old German jest-book translated into English 1560; a prototype of roguish fools; hence, A jester, buffoon.
boggle - to startle with amazement or fear + FDV: owlglasses screening screened her eyes,
fishnet - Used attrib. of an open-meshed fabric or garment + Netze (ger) - nets + Noteć (German: Netze) - river in central Poland + Iliad XIV: (of Hera preparing to beguile Zeus) 'and with a veil over all the peerless goddess veiled herself'.
wrinkling - a series or collection of wrinkles, a puckered surface
Hydaspes or Jehlum - river in India and Pakistan
potatoring - a ring or hoop of ceramic or metalware used as a stand for a bowl, so called due to an unfounded notion they were used to keep together a heap of potatoes in the middle of the dinner-table + (notebook 1923): 'potato ring'.
boucle = buckle - to fasten with a buckle
Laub (ger) - leaves + lobes + FDV: a pair of potato rings in her buckled the loose ends of her ears:
nude - naked, bare; As a colour, esp. of stockings: flesh coloured.
cuba - a dark red color
salmon - of the colour of the flesh of salmon, a kind of orange-pink + Salmo - genus of salmon + FDV: nude cuba stockings were salmon spot speckled:
sport - to show off, to wear with satisfaction
calico - variegated, piebald; cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern + Gállego - river in Spain.
shimmy - not fading or changing color readily; chemise (Slang)
vapour + vypar (Czech) - haze, fume + Vaipar - river in India.
tinto - a tint (a colour, usu. slight or delicate) + Río Tinto ("red river" in English) - river in southwestern Spain + Tinto - red Madeira wine, wanting the high aroma of the white sorts, and, when old, resembling tawny port + (notebook 1924): 'haze grey'.
fast - Of a colour: that will not quickly fade or wash out, permanent.
washing - 'washing of clothes', esp. as one of the regular requirements of a person or household + (notebook 1924): '*A* run in the wash'.
stays - corset
rival - associate, companion + 'rival' derives from Latin rivalis: one living on the opposite bank of a stream from another, one using the same stream as another.
line - to cover the outside of; to delineate, sketch
blood orange - a variety of orange having the pulp streaked with red
knickerbockers [.16] + FDV: and her bloodorange knickers fancy fastened with showed natural nigger bockers:
fancy - 'fine, ornamental', in opposition to 'plain' + fancy-free (phrase) - not in love (William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream II.1.164).
black stripe - an inferior kind of port wine
tan - brown coloured + Black and Tans - English recruits in 1920-1 serving in Royal Irish Constabulary,
joseph - a long cloak, worn chiefly by women in the eighteenth century when riding, and on other occasions; it was buttoned all the way down the front and had a small cape + Joseph - river in the United States.
sequin - adornment consisting of a small piece of shiny material used to decorate clothing + In Gallo-Roman religion, Sequana was the goddess of the river Seine + Seine - river in France.
teddy bear - a stuffed figure of a bear, made of rough plush, used as a toy or as a kind of mascot; a furry fabric resembling plush
rush - a plant of the order Juncaceæ, having straight naked stems or stalks (properly leaves) and growing in marshy ground
epaulette - an ornament worn on the shoulder as part of a military, naval, or civil uniform
let down + Lea - river in England + Leda and the Swan
ruff - a collar of projecting or distinctively coloured feathers or hair round the neck of various birds and animals + FDV: her blackstriped tan joseph was teddybearlined with a swansdown border:
brace - two of a kind + FDV: a couple of gaspers stuck in her hayrope garters;
gasper - cigarette, esp. a cheap or inferior one
hayrope - a rope twisted of hay + Europe
civvy - civilian
corduroy - a kind of coarse, thick-ribbed cotton stuff, worn chiefly by labourers or persons engaged in rough work + Codroy - river in Canada.
alphabet + Heu (ger) - hay + Bett (ger) - bed + Alpheus is the longest river in the Peloponnese, Greece.
bar - a rigid piece of metal or wood, usually used as a fastening; pound [sterling] (Slang) + FDV: her civvy coat was belted with zoned by a twobar belting.
fourpenny bit - a silver coin of the value of four pence + a bit - a sum of money, money.
side pocket - a pocket in the side portion of a garment (esp. a coat or jacket)
clothes peg - a forked wooden peg used to fasten linen on a clothes-line
astride - bestriding, spanning
joki (Finnish) - river
kep = keep + FDV: She had a tight clothespeg astride of her nose so as she & something in her mouth as well
Joyce's note: 'Smthg in her mouth' + Somme - river in Picardy, northern France.
quaint - strange in an interesting or pleasing way, odd or even incongruous in character or appearance, attractively old-fashioned (but not necessarily authentic)
fiume (it) - river
reke = reek + reka (Serbian) - river.
fleuve (fr) - river
gawan (Japanese) - river + gown
snuff - a preparation of powdered tobacco for inhaling through the nostrils + drab - a kind of cloth; of a dull light-brown or yellowish-brown.
siubhlóir (Irish) = shooler (Anglo-Irish) - vagrant, wanderer, beggar + Sioule - river in central France.
Irish mile - 2240 yards + FDV: & the tail of her old brown snuffbrown skirt trailed 50 miles behind her on the road.
along the road + hod (Serbian) - walk + Rhone or Rhodanus - one of the major rivers of Europe, originating in Switzerland and running through France.
hellsbells - exp. of impatience or irritation, anger or annoyance + FDV: O hellsbells, what I'm sorry I missed her. Everyone who saw her said the dear sweet little lady seemed a bit queer. She must have looked a funny poor dear. Funny poor dear she must have looked. Dickens a funnier ever you saw. There was a gang of surfacemen [boomslanging & plugchewing [, lying & leasing,]] on Lazy Wall & as soon as they seen these seen who was in it says one to the other: Between you & me & the wall we are on beneath us as round as a hoop Alp has doped.
sweetgum - any of several Oriental and American trees, of the genus Liquidambar
gumption - common sense, mother wit, shrewdness. Also, initiative, enterprise, 'drive' + Gumti - tributary of the Ganges River + Joyce's note, Penelope: 'sweet 55 and nobody fainted'.
whelk - a pustule, pimple; a marine gastropod mollusc of the genus Buccinum, having a turbinate shell + welk (Dutch) - which + which of her mouths? - referring to Anna Livia's delta, but also bearing overtones of sexual perversion (Hart, Clive / Structure and motif in Finnegans wake).
naze - a promontory or headland + nose
alight - lighted, kindled, illuminated; on fire + all right
douce - sweet, pleasant + (notebook 1924): 'Donce' → Freeman's Journal 25 Feb 1924, 6/3: 'Water Supply. How Dublin and District Are Provided For': 'The basin of the river Vartry occupies the central portion of the north-east quarter of Co. Wicklow, and extends from the Sugarloaf and the Donce mountains in a south-easterly direction to the town of Wicklow'.
Delia (l) - Diana, from her birth on the island of Delos + (notebook 1922-23): 'the dear little lady seemed funny' → Daily Mail 10 Jan 1923, 6/4: 'Barricaded House Inquest': 'coroner read... a letter... The dear little lady... committed suicide... when I came to the room she seemed funny and said she was trying to shoot herself' (in fact, he murdered her).
poddle - to walk with short, unsteady, or uncertain steps, like those of a child + puddle - a small body of standing water (rainwater) or other liquid + Poddle - one of the best known of the more than a hundred watercourses of Dublin.
fol = fool; full + fall
say (Anglo-Irish Pronunciation) - sea
fenny - boggy, swampy; muddy, dirty + (notebook 1922-23): 'funny poor dear' → Daily Mail 30 Nov 1922, 8/5: 'Long-Skirt Menace by Dorothy Richardson': 'Those funny poor dears, the ankle-gazers, who shriek out against current immodesties... will remain themselves whatever the fashion'.
hex - jinx, witch + FDV: She must have looked a funny poor dear. Funny poor dear she must have looked.
char - to do odd turns or jobs, esp. of housework; to work in this way by the day, without continuous employment; hence trans. (colloq.) to do the cleaning work of (a house) + Char - river in West Dorset.
ham - the back of the thigh; the thigh and buttock collectively. Usually in pl. + Kickham, Charles Joseph (1826-82) - Fenian, author of Knocknagow + (notebook 1922-23): 'dickens a curl has gone'.
frumpy - like a frump, dowdy, shabbily dull in colour or appearance; without brightness, smartness, or freshness + frump - a cross, old-fashioned, dowdily-dressed woman; Also, said of a dowdy dress + FDV: Dickens a funnier ever you saw.
mush - any soft or soggy mass
mullet - any fish of the families Mullidæ + Mullet - river in eastern Wisconsin in the United States.
(notebook 1922-23): 'her boy '.
Dublin bay + (notebook 1930): 'R Belon'.
Mayqueen, young girl which leads the mayday celebration in Britain (kyle foley) + Charitôn (gr) - of the Graces + {And they crowned her as their charity queen. Queen of the May?}
Murray, John - James Joyce's maternal gradfather + May Murray - James Joyce's mother + Murray - Australia's longest river (Darling is tributary of Murray) + muddied.
(notebook 1924): '*T* it is well she can't see herself' (siglum not crayoned).
recognize + Regnitz - river in Bavaria, Germany.
waarvoor (Dutch) = hvorfor (Danish) - why + Wharfe - river in Yorkshire, England.
mercy me! + Mersey - river on which stands the city of Liverpool.
koros (gr) - surfeit; youth + Kőrös - river in eastern Hungary + chorus
surfaceman - a miner or other labourer who works at the surface, or in the open air; on a railway, a workman who keeps the permanent way in repair + Joyce's note: 'surfacemen gangers } road' → Freeman's Journal 1 Feb 1924, 5/4: 'Free Fight. Wild Scenes at County Council Meeting': 'The trouble arose in connection with a notice of motion to make reductions in the wages of road workers, the pricipal figures being - surfacemen, from 45/- per week to 32/-; gangers, from 55/- to 42/-'.