Books I've Read
Making Money
Moist is maneuvered into assisting the dog that is chairman of the Royal Bank.
Words I Had To Look Up:
panopticon (pg. 56) -- an area where everything is visible.
fornication (pg. 58) -- vaulted roofing or covering. Trust me.
beccles (pg. 109) -- the small bone buttons placed in bacon sandwiches by unemployed guerrilla dentists, from The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd.
pecunious (pg. 122) -- abounding in money; wealthy.
mountebank (pg. 127) -- any charlatan or quack.
frisson (pg. 143) -- a sudden, passing sensation of excitement; a shudder of emotion; thrill.
mendacity (pg. 148) -- 1. The condition of being mendacious; untruthfulness. 2. A lie; a falsehood.
charivari (pg. 155) -- a noisy mock serenade (made by banging pans and kettles) to a newly married couple. But from http://www.charivarirest.com/ (and nowhere else) we have 'Charivari is a French word for "beautiful good mix"', which seems more what the author was thinking of.
dunnikin (pg. 157) -- a privy.
gongfermor (pg. 157) -- the people who emptied cesspits in Medieval villages or castles.
tumbrel (pg 236) -- a farm dumpcart for carrying dung; carts of this type were used to carry prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution.Quote:
"Nom d'une bouilloire! Pourquoi est-ce que je suis hardiment ri sous cape a par le dieux"? translates as "Name of a kettle! Why am I boldly laughed under cape has by the gods "? (pgs. 110-111)Quote:
"An error, sir, is worse than a sin, the reason being that a sin is often a matter of opinion or viewpoint or even of timing but an error is a fact and it cries out for correction."Quote:
"I can assure you that if I had, as your ill-assumed street patois has it, 'dropped you in it,' you would fully understand all meanings of 'drop' and have an unenviable knowledge of 'it.'"Read:
11/2007