kink - a mental twist; an odd or fantastic notion; a crotchet, whim + 'Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes' (nursery rhyme).
taw - a large choice or fancy marble, often streaked or variegated, being that with which the player shoots; a game played with such marbles + (venereal disease).
whor = where (obs.) + whore.
dor (Portuguese) - pain
pene (it) - penis + pena (Serbian) - foam, froth + FSTD: Taff — Where doth the pain lie, Muster Punch.
drumhead courtmartial - a court-martial summoned round an upturned drum, for summary treatment of offenders during military operations
gonorrhea - a common venereal disease. Symptoms are painful urination and pain around the urethra + General Staff - a body of officers controlling an army from headquarters under the commander-in-chief + Generalstab (ger) - general staff.
pugh = pooh - an ejaculation expressing impatience, or contemptuous disdain or disregard for anything; excrement, faeces (slang.) + Ps and Qs (nursery) - 'please' and 'thank you'
Pigott, Richard - obscure Irish journalist ("he played Falstaff to my Hal," Bernard Shaw wrote) who forged the letters which the Times published in "Parnellism and Crime." The forged letters linked Parnell to the assassinating-dynamiting faction of the Irish nationalists, indicated his approval of the Phoenix Park murders. Pigott's forgery was exposed when, before a government tribunal, he misspelt "hesitancy" as "hesitency." Pigott fled across Europe, pursued by Scotland Yard, and, in Madrid, he shot himself. In FW, the pursuit is mixed with the pursuit of Parnell. Who sent Pigott a-forging has not been surely established. FW seems to think it was Gladstone or the O'Sheas. (Glasheen, Adaline / Third census of Finnegans wake) + if you please.
marsch (ger) - march + marshal.
do the nut - to become angry, lose one's head; to be worked up about something; to be crazy
dingbat - a foolish or stupid person; someone crazy or insane
dag - a 'character', an extraordinary person, a 'tough' but amusing person
zahar (Basque) - old + Zar und Zimmermann (ger) - Czar and Carpenter (opera).
chorus + tsori (Basque) - bird.
aither (gr) = aether (l) - air, pure air, the fifth element + elhur (Basque) - snow.
heliotropical - bending or turning in a particular direction under the influence of light
nighttime - the time between evening and morning, the time of night or darkness
tuff = tough (obs.)
pending - while awaiting, until the occurrence of, until; during, throughout the continuance of
vice versa - the same but with the two things or people mentioned reversed + viseversio (l) - a turning around in appearance.
metenergetikos (gr) - changeactive, active for change
reglow - the act of glowing again
batt - a felted mass of hair and wool in hat-making + Butt.
Baird, John Logie - Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube.
bombardment - the process of bombarding; continuous attack upon a place with shot and shell + television screen bombarded with electrons.
tastefully - in a tasteful manner, with good taste
taut - tightly drawn, as by longitudinal tension
geranium - a bright red color tinted with orange, like that of a scarlet geranium + uranium.
satin - a silk fabric with a glossy surface on one side
tele- (gr) - far-, from afar + frame - to enclose in or as if in a frame + teleframe - one complete sweeping of a television screen.
step up - fig. To arise, come suddenly into prominence; to amplify (television).
photo- (gr) - light
syncope - failure of the heart's action, resulting in loss of consciousness, and sometimes in death + synkope (gr) - a cutting up into small pieces + sync pulses added to output (television).
bitt - one of the strong posts firmly fastened in pairs in the deck or decks of a ship, for fastening cables, belaying ropes, etc.; generally used in the plural
teff - the principal cereal of Abyssinia, Poa (Eragrostis) abyssinica, producing minute red or white grains from which bread is made + bits between their teeth.
mistletoe - a parasitic plant of Europe, Viscum album (N.O. Loranthaceć), growing on various trees (in Britain, frequently on the apple-tree, rarely on the oak) and bearing a glutinous fruit, from which a birdlime is prepared + Ulysses.15.4606: 'Irish missile troops... Royal Dublin Fusiliers'.
Hickory, Dickory, Dock (nursery rhyme)
borne - carried
carnival + carnis (l) - flesh, meat + carrier wave - the wave that transports the signal wave (television).
spraygun - an apparatus for applying a liquid substance in the form of spray + in television tube, spraygun bombards screen with electrons.
rake - to sweep the length of ("The gunfire raked the coast")
split - to separate or take apart longitudinally
focus - the centre of activity, or area of greatest energy + split focus (in early form of television).
grenade - to attack with grenades
dynamite - to shatter or wreck by the explosion of dynamite
electrolyte - a substance which dissolves in water or another suitable medium to give a solution capable of conducting an electric current; also, such a solution + alex- (gr) - defending-, averting-.
nichillate - annulled + nichil (Low Latin) - nothing + Tsars Alexander and Nicholas.
rutilance - rutilant quality (rare.) → rutilant - glittering, with either a ruddy or golden light + rutilans (l) - glowing redly, shining.
Alfred Lord Tennyson: The Charge of the Light Brigade i: 'Rode the six hundred'.
Schluss (ger) - end + Schloss (ger) - lock; castle.
gospel truth - the truth or truths contained in the gospel; something as true as the gospel
caesius (l) - bluish-grey (color of eyes) + caseus (l) - cheese + caesium sensitises television screens.
coating - clothing of the nature of a coat
fluorescence - the coloured luminosity produced in some transparent bodies by the direct action of light, esp. of the violet and ultra-violet rays; the property, in certain substances, of rendering the ultra-violet rays visible, so as to produce this phenomenon.
mephitis - a noxious or pestilential emanation, esp. from the earth; a noisome, or poisonous stench
coagulate - to become converted into a soft solid mass; to curdle, congeal + caecus (l) - blind + oculatus (l) - having eyes, seeing + caecoculatus (l) - having blind eyes.
iconoscope - a kind of television camera tube (now little used) in which the target plate that receives the image consists of a mosaic of photoemissive material on an insulating sheet that is backed with a conducting sheet, the video signal being obtained from the variation in the current flowing to or from this latter sheet as the mosaic is scanned with an electron beam.
still - an ordinary photograph, as distinguished from a motion picture; spec. a single shot from a film (or a specially posed photograph of a scene from it) for use in advertising.
wohl (ger) - well + Gast (ger) - guest + ghast - ghastly + Philippians 2:1: 'fellowship of the Spirit' + holy ghost
Popeye the Sailor - hero of the American comic-strip 'The Thimble Theatre'
General of the Jesuits + Russian General
eidolon (gr) - phantom, reflected image + idolo (Spanish) - idol.
starre (ger) - to stare + The Star and Garter - pub name.
Son of Heaven - the Emperor of China; loosely, any Chinese
garter - a band (usually elastic) worn around the leg to hold up a stocking + the Garter - the badge of the highest order of English knighthood. Hence, membership of this order; the order itself + Gurtel (ger) - belt, girdle.
Isabella la Catolica - patron of Columbus
Michael VIII Palaeologus (reigned 1259-1282 A.D.) - founder of the Palaeologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. He recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261 and transformed the Empire of Nicaea into a restored Byzantine Empire.
latchet - a thong (Acts 22:25), cord, or strap fastening the sandal on the foot (Isa. 5:27; Mark 1:7; Luke 3:16).
Jan of Nepomuk - Czech patron saint of Bohemia, whose tongue alone had not decayed when tomb was opened in 1719, 330 years after being drowned in the Vltava river for refusing to disclose to Wenceslas IV the secrets of the king's wife's confession.
puffpuff - an imitation of the sound of repeated puffing by a steam-engine; hence, a nursery name for a locomotive, or a railway train
pompom - the name given during the South African war, 1899-1902, to the Maxim automatic quick-firing gun; a representation of a repetitive sound, e.g. the beat of a popular tune or poem; the round tuft on a soldier's or sailor's cap, the front of a shako, etc.
pewter - any of various alloys of tin with small amounts of other metals (especially lead) + powder and ball + Peter and Paul.
buckling - a brace, a fastening; the action of collapsing under pressure or stress
gorman = gourmand + O'Gormain (o'gurman) (geal) - descendant of Gorman (diminutive of gorm, 'blue'); Maelmuire O'Dunain O'Gorman, latinized Marianus Gorman (d. 1181), Augustinian abbot composed his 'Marturology' (calendar of saints) in 2.780 lines of verse during reign of Ruaidhri O'Conchobhair + James Joyce assisted Gorman throughout his preparation of the "authorized" biography, characteristically erased his presence by withdrawing the authorization, and knew Gorman's account of his difficulties with Richards (publication delays for Dubliners) well enough to allude to the biography -- before its publication -- as "the Martyrology of Gorman" in Finnegans Wake.
customary - according to custom; commonly used or practised; usual, habitual + customary midweek service.
victor + vicar.
pleace = please (v.) + (do not make noise).
doughboy - an infantryman in the U.S. Army
hell, something's gone wrong with the supersonic switch! (i.e. television switch)
something's wrong with
blank - to render blank or void; to veil from sight + blink - to briefly shut the eyes.
eyes + (in Extreme Unction, eyes, nose, mouth, hands and feet are anointed to invoke God's forgiveness for sins committed by them; also called Last Rites of the Church (i.e. Russian General is about to die)).
niece - a daughter of one's brother (brother-in-law) or sister (sister-in-law) + vices.
nose + nasus (l) - nose.
put up - to place (a military or other decoration) on one's uniform or other clothes
wollop = wallop - to beat soundly, belabour, thrash
mouther - one given to vain, boastful, or declamatory speech + wipes his mouth with a sort of.
oben (ger) - above, upstairs
under - to cast down, depress + beundre (Danish) - admire.
bundle - fig. To collect, to gather into a mass. (Usually with up or together.)
mancupium (l) - a taking by hand, formal purchase + manus (l) - hand.
pedarius (l) - belonging to the foot + pes (l) - foot + pederasts.
accomplice - an associate in guilt, a partner in crime + accomplishments.
confederate - a person or state in league with another or others for mutual support or joint action; an ally + comfoedo (l) - I pollute, I defile.
coda (Italian) - tail; end + couldn't.
Jesus Christ + yes, sir.