Difference between revisions of "Chapter 78: 758-773"

Latest revision as of 11:50, 1 November 2011

Page 759

Junto
Meeting, get together, social, etc.

Before Ives' time, no doubt, but note, also: The Junto was a club established in 1727 by Benjamin Franklin for mutual improvement in Philadelphia. Also known as the Leather Apron Club, its purpose was to debate questions of morals, politics, and natural philosophy, and to exchange knowledge of business affairs. From WIKI

The Room continues to fill up, the Dawn not to arrive.
This section is extremely Faulknerian; esp. brings to mind the opening pages of Sartoris.

Sercial
Sercial (Cerceal in Portuguese) is the name applied to any of several white grapes grown in Portugal, especially on the island of Madeira, and gives its name to the dryest of the four classic varieties of Madeira fortified wine. From WIKI

Page 760

puissant
Powerful, mighty, having authority. From WIKI

sotto Voce
Sotto voce (Italian pronunciation: [ˈsotːo ˈvotʃe], literally "under voice") means to speak under one's breath. From WIKI

Epiphany
Epiphany is a Christian feast day which celebrates the revelation of God in human form in the person of Jesus Christ. Epiphany falls on January 6 in the modern Gregorian Calendar followed by most Western churches. Many of the Eastern Churches use the traditional Julian Calendar, where Epiphany occurs on the Gregorian Calendar's January 19. Western Christians commemorate the visitation of the Biblical Magi to the child Jesus on this day, i.e., his manifestation to the Gentiles. Eastern Christians commemorate the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, seen as his manifestation to the world as the Son of God. It is also called Theophany, especially by Eastern Christians. From WIKI

Page 761

cotes
A small structure built to contain domesticated animals such as sheep, pigs or pigeons. From WIKI

Page 762

Mayer
See page 730.

Page 763

Se'nnight
Seven days and nights; a week. From WIKI

Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city... The City of Birmingham forms part of the larger West Midlands conurbation and includes several neighbouring towns and cities, such as Solihull, Wolverhampton and the towns of the Black Country. From WIKI

Page 764

Leyden Jar
See page 294.

Lignum Vitae
Lignum vitae is a trade wood, also called guayacan or in Europe known as pockenholz, from trees of the genus Guaiacum. This wood was once very important for applications requiring a material with its extraordinary combination of strength, toughness and density. From WIKI

Alembicks... Retorts
An alembic is an alchemical still consisting of two retorts connected by a tube. Technically, the alembic is only the upper part (the capital or still-head), while the lower part is the cucurbit, but the word was often used to refer to the entire distillation apparatus. A modern descendant of the alembic (used to produce alcohol) is the pot still. It was described by Al-Razi in the 9th century in his "Book of Secrets". From WIKI

Page 765

Stellium
Stellium: At least four planets linked together in a series of continuous conjunctions. The planets will act as if they are all in conjunction with each other, even if not all of them actually are. This pattern gives a huge emphasis to the sign occupied by the planets, regardless of the sun sign. From WIKI

Vis Martis
Inner Mars

Ephemeris
An ephemeris (plural: ephemerides; from the Greek word ἐφήμερος ephemeros "daily") is a table of values that gives the positions of astronomical objects in the sky at a given time or times. Different kinds are used for astronomy and astrology. From WIKI

Page 766

Coves
(British) A fellow; a man. From WIKI

High Tobers
"A member of the aristocracy of thiefdom" (Source: Americanisms: Old & New, comp. Farmer, 1889, and several other slang/cant dictionaries confirm this meaning; Casell's Dictionary of Slang gives "high tober gloak" as "a mounted highwayman"); "In American thieves' slang, the very highest order of 'gonoffs' or thieves, who go well-dressed and frequent watering-places" (A dictionary of slang, jargon & cant, 1889)

Cheroot
The cheroot or stogie is a cylindrical cigar with both ends clipped during manufacture. Since cheroots do not taper, they are inexpensive to roll mechanically, and their low cost makes them particularly popular. From WIKI

Page 767

Gloak
A man, a guy. From WIKI

quiddles
To talk nonsense or speak vaguely, to waffle. From WIKI

the Bitter flows
Bitter- A type of beer heavily flavored with hops. from WIKI

Ghastly Fop
See page 527.

Footpads
A footpad is a robber or thief specializing in pedestrian victims. The term was used widely throughout the 16th century until the 19th century, but gradually fell out of common use. A footpad was considered a low criminal, as opposed to the riding highwaymen, who in certain cases might gain fame as well as notoriety. From WIKI

Brum Kiddy
Kid talking with an imitation growl

Canting
To speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup. From WIKI

Clozay le Gob
A verb in the imperative plural in French ends in "ez", pronounced like "ay", with "Gob" being British slang for "mouth".

Joint
A cut of meat. From WIKI

Tohu-Vabohu
Commotion, chaos. From WIKI

Page 768

weft-forks... pirn winders
Weaving is the textile art in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads, called the warp and the filling or weft (older woof), are interlaced with each other to form a fabric or cloth. The warp threads run lengthways of the piece of cloth, and the weft runs across from side to side. Cloth is woven on a loom, a device for holding the warp threads in place while the filling threads are woven through them. Weft is an old English word meaning "that which is woven". The manner in which the warp and filling threads interlace with each other is known as the weave. The three basic weaves are plain weave, satin weave, and twill, and the majority of woven products are created with one of these weaves. From WIKI

Mayer
See page 730.

Data
Cf. page 735.

Nautical Almanac
In Great Britain, The Nautical Almanac has been published annually by the HM Nautical Almanac Office, ever since the first edition was published in 1767... A nautical almanac is a publication describing the positions of a selection of celestial bodies for the purpose of enabling navigators to use celestial navigation to determine the position of their ship while at sea. The Almanac specifies for each whole hour of the year the position on the Earth's surface (in declination and Greenwich hour angle) at which the sun, moon, planets and first point of Aries is directly overhead. The positions of 57 selected stars are specified relative to the first point of Aries. From WIKI

A.R.
Astronomer Royal

Page 769

Mr. Herschel
See page 708.

Flamsteed
See page 211.

Le Monnier
See page 213.

antepenultimate
Two before the last in a series. From WIKI

malodorous
Having a bad odor. From WIKI

Plexities
Innerworkings

Page 770

Mr. Hutton
Charles Hutton (14 August 1737 – 27 January 1823) was an English mathematician... In 1773 he was appointed professor of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and in the following year he was elected fellow of the Royal Society of London and reported on Nevil Maskelyne's determination of the mean density and mass of the earth from measurements taken in 1774–1776 at Schiehallion in Perthshire. This account appeared in the Philosophical Transactions for 1778, was afterwards reprinted in the second volume of his Tracts on Mathematical and Philosophical Subjects, and procured for Hutton the degree of LL.D. from the University of Edinburgh. He was elected foreign secretary to the Royal Society in 1779, but his resignation in 1783 was brought about by the president Sir Joseph Banks, whose behaviour to the mathematical section of the society was somewhat high-handed. From WIKI

Henry Cavendish
See page 730.

Mr. Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS (13 February 1743 – 19 June 1820) was a British naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage (1768–1771). Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa, and the genus named after him, Banksia. Approximately 80 species of plants bear Banks's name. Banks was also the leading founder of the African Association, a British organization dedicated to the exploration of Africa, and a member of the Society of Dilettanti, which helped to establish the Royal Academy. From WIKI

Picador
A picador (pl. picadores) is one of the pair of horsemen in a Spanish bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. From WIKI

Perseus
Constellation, but: Perseus, the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths in the cult of the Twelve Olympians. Perseus was the hero who killed Medusa and claimed Andromeda, having rescued her from a sea monster. from WIKI

Algol, the Ghoul-Star
Algol, known colloquially as the Demon Star, is a bright star in the constellation Perseus. It is one of the best known eclipsing binaries, the first such star to be discovered, and also one of the first (non-nova) variable stars to be discovered. Algol is actually a three-star system (Beta Persei A, B, and C) in which the large and bright primary Beta Persei A is regularly eclipsed by the dimmer Beta Persei B. Thus, Algol's magnitude is usually near-constant at 2.1, but regularly dips to 3.4 every two days, 20 hours and 49 minutes during the roughly 10-hour long partial eclipses. There is also a secondary eclipse when the brighter star occults the fainter secondary. This secondary eclipse can only be detected photoelectrically. From WIKI

Schiehallion
See page 730.

B. of L.
Board of Longitude

Page 771

Petroglyph
Petroglyphs (also called rock engravings) are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images. Petroglyphs are found world-wide, and are often (but not always) associated with prehistoric peoples. The word comes from the Greek words petros meaning "stone" and glyphein meaning "to carve" (it was originally coined in French as pétroglyphe). From WIKI

Page 772

Kabbalistick
See pages 356 & 479.

data
See page 768.

Pentateuch
The Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deutoronomy & Numbers.

Gematria
See page 479.

Page 773

Mr. Shippen
See page 293.

Revd Peters
Richard Peters (1704 – July 10, 1776) was an American cleric and a civil servant in colonial Pennsylvania. For many years he was the rector of Christ Church in Philadelphia. From WIKI

Mr. Ewing
Reverend John Ewing (1732 - 1802), provost of the University of Pennsylvania, who Mason passed his scientific papers on to. Mason asked him to publish an American version of the Nautical Almanac, however, apparently, Ewing never pursued it.

Annotations Index