burral (burel) (geal) - bit, jot + burial + lock, stock and barrel - the whole thing (the 'whole thing' in question when this phrase originated was a musket: the lock, or flintlock, which is the firing mechanism; the stock, which is the wooden butt-end of the gun; the barrel, i.e. a cylindrical object).
by the black of your nail (Anglo-Irish phrase) - only just
mam - mom; madam + man + Maamtrasna - a valley in Joyce country, County Galway, and the scene of the murders of five members of a family named Joyce in 1882, for which ten men (five of whom were also called Joyce) were accused, of whom five were sentenced to life imprisonment and three executed (including the apparently-innocent Myles Joyce) after an unsound trial (including withheld documents, suppressed testimonies, etc.), in which the proceedings were carried out in English, while the accused spoke only Irish and their interpreter spoke a Donegal dialect, that at times was almost unintelligible to the accused (written about at length, with quite a few factual errors, in James Joyce's "Ireland at the Bar").
kayoed - knocked, knocked out
offhand - at once, strightaway; without previous thought or preparation
heckler - one who severely questions another
Peter the Painter - Russian anarchist of the early 20th century + Joyce's note: 'Peter the Painter' → Irish Times 2 Dec 1922, 7/8: 'The attacking party were all armed with Service rifles, and some of them carried "Peter the Painters" and Smith and Wesson revolvers'.
hole - to make a hole in, pierce, to place in a hole; to fire a bullet into; to put in prison
consistently - with consistency, constantly adhering to the same principles of thought or action.
imprescriptable - not subject to prescription; that cannot in any circumstances be legally taken away or abandoned.
Joyce's note: 'bellybone'
chuck - to throw with the hand with little action of the arm; to throw underhand; to toss; prob. at first said of throwing or tossing money, or anything light; now used somewhat playfully or contemptuously of heavy things, as suggesting that they are thrown with ease or contempt.
chum - a habitual companion, an associate, an intimate friend; In Australia: new chum, a fresh immigrant, a 'greenhorn'; old chum, an old and experienced settler.
chuck and chance it - a derisive phrase used attrib. to describe wet-fly fishing.
alongst = along
semita (l) - path
throughfare - a road, street, lane, or path forming a communication between two other roads or streets, or between two places; a public way unobstructed and open at both ends; esp. a main road or street + Durchfahrt (ger) - thoroughfare, passage.
buggy - a two-wheeled cart
bike - bicycle
curb - a massive ornamental fireplace fender + curb (Slang) - thief's hook.
oxter - armpit + ULSTER - North province of Ireland. The arms of Ulster are a red right hand (lamh dearg) on a white shield (the arms of the O'Neils).
alpenstock - a long staff pointed with iron, used in climbing the Alps, whence it has passed into general use in mountain climbing.
red hand - a heraldic hank that is erect, open and couped at the wrist + with red hand - with clear evidence of guilt.
commendable - proper to be commended, praiseworthy, laudable
Acta legitima plebeia (l) - Daily record of the lawful public acts of the common people. Acta at Rome included Acta publica, Acta Senatus, Acta Diurna, Acta Triumphorum but no known Acta L. P. (O Hehir, Brendan; Dillon, John M. / A classical lexicon for Finnegans wake) + legitime (l) - lawful.
on the brink of - on the the very verge of some state, time, event, or action
baulk = balk - to check, hinder, thwart (a person or his action)
bare (Danish) - just
BUTT BRIDGE - Aka Swivel Bridge. The last (and East-most) bridge as the Liffey flows except for the Loop Line Railway bridge. Erected 1879; named for the 19th-century politician Isaac Butt.
to go west - of the sun; also fig., to die, perish, disappear
naturligvis (Danish) - naturally + likewise - in the like or same manner, similarly.
thankfully - with thanks, gratefully
bereave - to deprive, rob, strip, dispossess (a person, etc., of a possession; Since 1650 mostly of immaterial possessions, life, hope, etc.)
ringdove - a common European pigeon (Columba palumbus); also called ring-pigeon, wood-pigeon, cushat, or queest.
fearstruck - struck with or overwhelmed by fear + (notebook 1924): 'snake bites out of fear' → Crawford: Thinking Black 252: 'For who does not know that a snake never really attacks a man, only bites out of fear, and only because you have stumbled over him in error'.
boa constrictor - large Brazilian serpent of the genus Boa; commonly applied to any great crushing snake.
(notebook 1924): 'quite pleased at having other people's weather'
headway - advance, progress (in general) + FDV: As if that would not do but little headway was made when a countryman Festy King who gave an address in Monaghan Joyce Country in the heart of a wellfamed poteen district was subsequently brought up on an improper improperly framed indictment of both courts. It was attempted to show that having come to rubbed some dirt on his face to disguise himself he was at the door fair of a Monday with a pig this animal ate some of the doorpost, King selling it because it _____, ate the woodwork off her sty. An eyewitness said he remembered the fifth of November [which was going to go down in the annals of history] & one thing that particularly struck him was he saw or heard unquestionably a man named Pat O'Donnell beat & murder another of the Kings, Simon, but when the ambush was laid there was not as much light as wd light dim a child's altar and to the perplexedly uncondemnatory bench, the first King, Festy, declared through his interpreter on his oath & before God & their honours that he did not fire a stone either before or after he was born up to that day & this he supplemented had the neck to supplement in the same language by postasserting that he wd impart he might never ask to see sight or light of this world or the next world [or any other world] if ever he took or threw the sign of a stone either before or after being baptised up to that blessed & holy hour.
conundrum - any puzzling question or problem; a riddle in the form of a question the answer to which involves a pun or play on words.
Mam (mam) (geal)
- Breach, Mountain pass; village, Co. Galway + Joyce's note: 'Interpreter / – Maam'; † 'Ireland at the Bar', 197: Several years ago a
sensational trial was held in Ireland. In a lonely place in a western province,
called Maamtrasna, a murder was committed. Four of five townsmen, all belonging
to the ancient tribe of the Joyces, were arrested. The oldest of them, the seventy
year old Myles Joyce, was the prime suspect. Public opinion at the time thought
him innocent and today considers him a martyr. Neither the old man nor the others
accused knew English. The court had to resort to the services of an interpreter.
The questioning, conducted through the interpreter, was at times comic and at
times tragic. On one side was the excessively ceremonious interpreter, on the
other the patriarch of a miserable tribe unused to civilized customs, who seemed
stupefied by all the judicial ceremony.[...] The figure of this dumbfounded
old man, a remnant of a civilization not ours, deaf and dumb before his judge,
is a symbol of the Irish nation at the bar of public opinion + 'Maamtrasna, is anglicised as 'Maam Cross'.
(notebook 1922-23): 'Festus Joyce, Recess'
tar and feather - to smear with tar and then cover with feathers: a punishment sometimes inflicted by a mob (esp. in U.S.) on an unpopular or scandalous character.
MAYO OF THE SAXONS - "Yew-Plain of the Saxons": Monastery, now ruins and site of village of Mayo 3 miles South of Balla, County Mayo; est. 7th century by St Colman for English monks from Inishbofin following disputes between Irish and English monks there [(notebook 1923): 'Mayo of the Saxons'].
far famed - that is famed to a great distance, well known
potheen (Anglo-Irish) - illicit whiskey
hale - to draw up, to constrain or draw forcibly to, to bring in violently, drag in.
Old Bailey - the seat of the Central Criminal Court in London {Earwicker at the Old Bailey courhouse in London}
calends - the first day of any month in the Roman calendar
mars = march
incompatible - discordant, incongruous
indictment - Law. The legal process in which a formal accusation is preferred to and presented by a Grand Jury.
count - Law. Each particular charge in a declaration or indictment
equinox - the condition of having the days and nights of equal length. Also fig.
fetch - something that looks exactly like another, counterpart; the phantom double of a living person appearing as an omen of the death; a contrivance, dodge, trick + "One man's meat is another man's poison" ('meat' is often to be understood in the slang sense of 'penis') + poisson (fr) - fish.
cushat - the wood-pigeon or ring-dove + to fly pigeons (Slang) - to steal coal.
overalls - an external covering, cloak, waterproof, trousers + ouver = over.
fesses - pl. of fess - a broad bar drawn horizontally across the middle of a heraldic field + fesses (fr) - buttocks + far fesso (it) - to make a fool of someone.
in mids - amidst, in the middle (of)
Oje! (ger) - oh dear!
soaked - dull, lacking in animation; steeped, macerated; saturated, drenched; intoxicated.
methylate - to impregnate with methanol + methylated spirit - form in which alcohol is most commonly employed for industrial purposes.
in dry dock - inactive, unemployed; in quarantine, in hospital + dry dock - a dock that can be kept dry for use during the construction or repairing of ships + dock - the enclosure in a criminal court in which the prisoner is placed at his trial.
ambrosia (gr, l) - food of the goods + aureolus (l) - golden.
kersey - a coarse woolen cloth for hose and work clothes, homespun
corduroy - a kind of coarse, thick-ribbed cotton stuff, worn chiefly by labourers or persons engaged in rough work.
rent - a large tear in garment
nightshirt - a nightgown resembling a shirt
straw - of the color of straw
souwester - a large oilskin or waterproof hat or cap worn by seamen to protect the head and neck during rough or wet weather.
corkscrew - resembling a corkscrew; spirally twisted; an imperfection in silk filaments.
out of the blue - unexpectedly, without warning
to tear up - to pull asunder by force (esp. cloth or paper)
WALES - Principality of UK forming the wide peninsula on the West of the island of Britain. Lat, Cambria; Welsh, Cymry.
bespoke - Of goods: Ordered to be made, as distinguished from ready-made + bespeak - to be the outward expression of; to indicate, give evidence of.
CARCER - The small prison North-East of the Forum in Rome where criminals were held pending trial. From medieval times called the "Mamertine prison." + Mamer - Oscan name for Mars.
depose - to testify, bear witness; esp. to give evidence upon oath in a court of law.