diddler - [Of obscure origin. Found first in the name of 'Jeremy Diddler', the chief character in Kenney's farce, 'Raising the Wind', brought out in 1803. The name was of course intended to be contemptuous and ludicrous; it is also probable that Jeremy Diddler's characteristic methods of 'raising the wind', by continually borrowing small sums which he does not pay back, and otherwise sponging upon people, gave rise to the current sense of the verb, of which 'diddler' is now naturally viewed as the agent-noun] A mean swindler or cheat, one who diddles people out of what belongs to them + Finnegan's Wake, chorus: 'Whack fol the dah'.

casual - occurring or brought about without design or premeditation, coming up or presenting itself 'as it chances'; In such phrases as 'casual labourer', one who does casual or occasional jobs, but has no fixed employment.

Decent Sort (Joyce's list of characters in I.2)  

variety - used as a collective to denote a number of things, qualities, etc., different or distinct in character; a varied assemblage

touch weekly insult (Cork phrase) - to get wages paid + (notebook 1923): 'weekly insult (wages)'.

phew - a vocal gesture expressing impatience, disgust, discomfort, or weariness + fuit (l) - it was.

fig - as a type of anything small, valueless, or contemptible + blabber - one who reveals secrets.

saith - say

stimulant - applied to alcoholic drinks (rare.)

gee (Slang) - vulva + 'g & g' - gin and ginger [(notebook 1923): 'g & g (gin and ginger)'] + J.J. and S. - John Jameson and Sons, Dublin whiskey.

stand - to bear the expense of, pay for (a treat)

stag - for man only

luncheon - Originally, a slight repast taken between two of the ordinary meal-times, esp. between breakfast and mid-day dinner.

flushed - suffused with red or ruddy colour; heated, excited

foster - to encourage, promote the development of

licensed premises - an establishment in which alcoholic beverages are consumed

cap-in-hand - custom of uncovering the head (abridged to 'raising' or merely 'touching' the cap) in sign of reverence, respect, or courtesy

executive - a person holding an executive position in a business organization; a person skilled in executive or administrative work + The Letter: P.S. four crosskisses.

in the rear (less freq. in rear) - in the hindmost part (of an army, etc.), behind

please send

lips + lupes (gr) - sorrows + (notebook 1924): 'wiped his lipes'.

buachaillin (bukholin) (gael) - little boy; unmarried man + (Joyce's note): 'the story of how Buckley shot the Russian general'.

rosc (Irish) - inflammatory speech, declamation + rosc-catha (Irish) - battle-hymn, war-cry (Pronunciation 'roskohe').

sinn fein - 'we ourselves' + sinn fein, sinn fein, amhain (shin fen shin fen awan) (gael) - ourselves, ourselves alone + seinn (Irish) - play music + fíon (Irish) - wine.

ámhran (Irish) - song

ballader - a writer of ballads + ballader (Danish) - ballad-singer.

humanity - the human race; mankind; human beings collectively + cumann (kumun) (gael) - club, society + community.

melôma (gr) - sweetened with honey + melos (gr) - song, music; limb.

lay - a short lyric or narrative poem intended to be sung (esp. by minstrels)

bogey - a bogle or goblin; a person much dreaded + bégayeur (fr) - stutterer + bugger (vulgar slang) - a sodomite.

avatar - the descent of a deity to the earth in an incarnate form

correctly - exactly, accurately, without error

luibin (lubin) (gael) - looplet, curl; pretty girl

Lieder (ger) - songs + follow my leader - a game in which each player must do what the leader does or pay forfeit.

riau (Provençal) - river basin + river Liffey.

riot - to make a disturbance, to storm

col - a high pass in a mountain range + colo (Provençal) - mountain + hill of Howth.

hump - to make humped or hump-shaped

legislator - one who makes laws (for a people or nation), a lawgiver + (Gladstone monument) + "The Shade of Parnell" (L'Ombre di...).

eleuthero- - free + eleutherios (gr) - free, liberal, generous, noble + dendron (gr) - tree + Tree of Liberty - post or tree set up by the people, hung with flags and devices and crowned with a cap of liberty (planted in American, French and Italian revolutions).

Woodman, Spare That Tree (song)

overflow - such a quantity as runs over; excess, superabundance + Joyce's note: 'overflow meeting' → overflow meeting - secondary meeting improvised for those who could not be accomodated at the primary one.

fulfill - to spread through the whole extent of; to pervade (obs.) + FDV: the world was the richer for a new halfpenny ballad first sung from the under the shadow of the monument of the dead legislator [to an audience overflow meeting [fully filling the visional area] representative of every section of the Irish people [ranging from slips of boys [with pocketed hands, ladychairs, [a few old souls obviously under the spell of liquor] & emergency men [in search of an honest crust]] to busy professional gentlemen.]]  

Divisional / area (Joyce's note) → Campbell (Cornwallis-West): My Life and Some Letters 300: (from an official report about her son in Gallipoli, 1915) 'he laid out 13 mine fields in the divisional area, protecting the withdrawal of troops from the line'. 

singleminded - sincere in mind or spirit; honest, straightforward; simple-minded + Souvenir of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Opening of The Gaiety Theatre 32: 'And oh! the choristers of old! Probably no set of men or women were ever so single-minded. When Sheridan remarked upon the unanimity of the stage, he must have been thinking of these operatic supers. It was one of the joys of old-fashioned opera that the "crowds" were always agreed upon the course of action to be pursued. There were no half measures with them. If one went, all went; where one pointed, all pointed'.

whet = what

cross section - a typical or representative sample, group, etc.

pour - Of persons: To run or rush in a stream or crowd.

brim - to fill to the brim

broach - to give vent or publicity to, to begin conversation or discussion about + broaching - introduction, mooting, origination of opinions.

Liffeyside (notebook 1924)

mainland - that continuous body of land which includes the greater part of a country or territory, in contradistinction to the portions outlying as islands or peninsulas

wayfare - to travel

Watling Street, Erning Street, Icknild Street, and Foss Way - Roman roads in Britain

in chief - chiefly, mainly

halted - brought to a stand

cockney - a derisive appellation for a townsman, as the type of effeminacy, in contrast to the hardier inhabitants of the country (obs.) + hackney coach - a carriage kept for hire.

quota - the part or share of a total which belongs, is given, or is due, to one + total.

Harmsworth, Viscount - Alfred Northcliffe, Irish newspaper magnate

hack - a writer hired to produce routine or commercial writing

Northern Whig - Belfast newspaper, one of two papers to publish Joyce's letter of protest about his difficulties over the publication of Dubliners

chronicler - a writer of a chronicle, a recorder of events + East-Anglian Chronicle and Manchester Guardian (newspapers).

range - to vary within certain limits

slip - a young person (a slip of girl) + (notebook 1923): 'a slip of a boy' → Corkery: The Hounds of Banba 200: 'The Price': 'he's only a boy, a slip of a boy'.

cutpurse - pickpocket + Cutpurse Row, now west end of the Cornmarket, Dublin.

videlicet - that is to say, namely, to wit

jumbo - huge + brick - a brick shaped block of any substance e.g. of ice-cream.

truant officer - a school attendance officer

woollen - woolen + three (golden) balls - the sign of a pawnbroker.

poplin - a mixed woven fabric, consisting of a silk warp and worsted weft, and having a corded surface. Poplin manufacture was a major industry in 17th to 19th century Dublin.

croûte de pain (fr) - crust of bread + crust of bread (Cockney Rhyming Slang) - head.

brace - a pair

palesman - an officer of a park charged with keeping the fences in repair + policeman

dundrearies - long flowing side whiskers

noon - to stop for a meal at noon + moving

O Dalaigh (o dali) (gael) - descendant of Dalach ("assemblist") + Daly's - Dublin club, closed 1823.

snipe - one or other of the limicoline birds of the genus Gallinago (formerly included in the Linnæan genus Scolopax), characterized by having a long straight bill, and by frequenting marshy places.

mallard - a wild drake or duck + (notebook 1922-23): 'mallard (wild duck)' → Irish Times 30 Dec 1922, 9/5: 'Bird Life in Dublin Bay': 'Of ducks that breed in Ireland, the wild duck or mallard is by far the most numerous'.

heath - bare, more or less flat, tract of land, naturally clothed with low herbage and dwarf shrubs

sneer - a look or expression implying derision, contempt, or scorn; a disdainful or scornful remark or utterance