9781853260193

Glossary of foreign words or phrases in Vanity Fair

• A! quel plaisir d’etre en voyage – ah, what a pleasure to be travelling
• anax andron (Greek) – Lord of Men
• abattement - faintness, dejection
• affaire la – love affair there (pointing to the heart)
• agrements - agreeable things
• Alnaschar – a beggar in Arabian Nights whose dreams of fame and riches led to his undoing
• ami de la maison - friend of the family
• amour propre – self-respect, sense of worth
• a propos – in relation to
• a qui cette voiture la – whose is that carriage there?
• at hazard (playing)- playing dice
• Athini (Greek letters) - Athens

• au fait as in “… I never saw them on horseback; and au fait, what was the use of cavalry in a time of profound peace?” – in fact

• au mieux – as best, the best
• avec sa femme, une petite dame, tres spirituelle - with his wife, a petite woman, very witty
• baldaquin – canopy of state over altar or throne
• barred (into a spunging house) - forced
• bien mauvaise mine - very poor state of mind
• bel esprit -cultivated highly intelligent person
• biglietto – a letter
• billet doux- love letter
• board (of food) – meal
• bon enfant – good natured
• bonne - maid, nurse
• bons vivants - high livers
• Bramah desk – brass bound mahogany travelling desk of military style
• brandy-pawnee – brandy and water
• bravos for couriers – hired assassins as couriers
• bumper (of wine) - glass filled to the brim
• buttony – trimmed with many buttons
• calash - folding hood or bonnet
• calipash – edible material on upper shell of turtle
• calipee – edible material on lower shell of turtle
• ce cher oncle - this or that dear uncle

• c'est a Kirsch, je bense, je l'ai vu tout a l'heure que brenoit des sangviches dans le voiture - it is Kirsch's, I believe, I have seen just now, who took some sandwiches in the carriage

• c'est le feu - it is gunfire
• cette charmante - this charming woman
• chasse a l’aigle – hunt for the eagle (Napoleon)
• chausse - stocking, or shoulder knot
• chaussee – shod, also used in the novel as “road”
• chaussure - foot-gear
• chou-fleur a l’eau – boiled cauliflower
• comite – small group
• conge – time off during employment
• contingent reversion - deferred annuity
• contretemps - disappointment or mishap
• conversazioni - meetings to chat
• coral as in “at six months old, a coral with gold whistle and bells” - teething toy for babies
• cordons (dress) - orders (granted by the state)
• Corydon – shepherd in ancient Greek pastoral poems
• costume du cour - court dress

• coupez-moi vite, coupez-moi les moustaches – coupy, rasy, vite - cut my hair quickly, cut the moustache(s), cut, shave, quick • ne porty ploo - habit militair - bonny, bonny a voo, prenny dehors - don't carry much, military dress, cap for you, take outside • venny maintenong, sweevy – ally – party – dong la roo - come now, pay attention, go, depart, in the street

• coxcomb - a vain showy man
• crible de dettes – peppered by debts
• cuddy-table – table in a ship’s cabin
• culotte courte – shorts (in the French Revolution worn by the male nobility as opposed to the “sans (without) culottes”)
• curricle - a two wheeled two horse-drawn vehicle
• curtain lecture - a private scolding by a wife of her husband
• cutcherry – Indian court or administrative office
• d’avance – in advance
• Dakruoen gelasasa (Greek) (Chapter 67) – laugh until you cry
• dame de compagnie – lady’s companion
• dame d'honneur – lady in waiting
• de retour – (has) returned
• de trop – too much
• decollete - low cut
• dejeuner - dinner
• dejeuner a la fourchette - meal eaten with a fork
• demireps - a person suspected of loose sexual behaviour
• distangy (distingue) – distinguished
• distraite- absent minded
• doter - endow, give a dowry
• double (with acute accent on the e) - twinned
• dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - sweet it is and fitting to die for one's country
• dun - insistent demand for payment, or the person who makes it
• ebullition - boiling
• ecarte - a card game
• eccolo qua – here or there it is
• ecrased – crushed, bruised
• en bays de gonoissance -
• en garcon – (unaccompanied) lit. like a bachelor
• en Marquis – dressed as a marquis
• en permanence – always there
• entre nous - between us
• entresol – mezzanine
• Eothen – a journey to the east, after Kinglake’s novel which went to Turkey; here it is India
• epris – in love, charmed with
• Erbprinz – hereditary prince
• espiegle - roguish or playful
• espieglerie – trickery
• estaminet – coffee house
• etat-major – military staff
• fade (French)- dull or insipid
• felicita – happiness
• femmes de chambre - chambermaids
• festin – banquet
• finikin – finicky
• firman – a grant by a Turkish sovereign
• flambeau - flame
• foison – abundance
• fort, Schwager – away, brother in law
• fredaines – frolics or pranks
• fumum and strepitus - smoke and noise
• Galignani – a newspaper of the time
• gare aux femmes - beware of women
• gastrolle - guest or short part in a play
• gawky (noun) – awkward person
• gigots – legs of mutton
• Graf - count
• Grafinn – countess
• grandes eaux - big tears
• gredin – scoundrel
• hardbake – boiled brown sugar or molasses with blanched almonds, flavoured with lemon juice
• housings (on horse) – blanket over or under saddle
• ils m’ont affreusement vole – they have robbed me horribly
• imperials – roofs of coaches
• in nubibus - nebulous or uncertain
• infames anglais – English infamous persons
• I was fain to – I wanted to
• Janissary – a Turkish soldier of the caliph
• jasey - wig
• jobbed her carriages – hired her carriages
• Johannisberger – a white Rhine wine
• kartoffeln - potatoes
• La Petite Vivandiere – the little canteen (army) woman
• lagrime - tears

• Laissez-moi tranquille. Il faut s’amuser, parbleu. Je ne suis pas au service de la Monsieur. - Leave me alone. I am not amused, really. I am not at Monsieur's service.

• lappets – loose flaps or folds
• laquais de place – caller out of place names (on coach)
• lassata nondum satiata recessit – weary, not yet satiated, retires (from Juvenal’s Sixth Satire)
• lazzaroni – homeless idlers (originating from Naples)
• locataires – tenants or lodgers
• manchen Sturm erlebt – lived through many storms
• ma pauvre prisonnier – my poor prisoner
• maître d’hotel - mine host, hotelier
• Meliboeus – a shepherd in a poem by Virgil
• mesalliance – bad match
• militaire - a military man
• moi qui vous parle – (yes) me with whom you speak
• monsieur n’est pas joueur? - sir is not a player?
• montees - kitted out
• mouton avec navets - mutton and turnips
• muri Achaiois alge ethike (Gk Ch 58) – countless sorrows upon the Achaeans
• mutato nomine – change but the name (and the story could be yours)
• narghile – water filtered smoking pipe
• national Goddem – national oath
• nebst Begleitung aus London – together with escort from London
• negus - spiced sweet wine, hot water and lemon juice
• nichts, nichts - nothing, nothing
• nous allons avoir une belle traversee – you go and have a good crossing (by boat)
• nous regardons a deux fois – we look twice
• otiosity - idleness, indolence
• parquet – bar of a court, but in this case, section of a theatre
• parvenu – newcomer to “society”, upstart
• pas – as in “the mustering of the allied armies…..was entitled to the pas over all minor occurrences…” – precedence
• pas de chevaux, sacre bleu – no horses, dammit
• pas si bete - not so stupid
• parole d’honneur – word of honour
• pasteboard theatre – some form of imitation of a real theatre
• pax in bello - halfhearted war
• pekin – civilian (seen as inferior by military man)
• Persicos apparatus - Persian trappings (from a poem by Horace)
• persiffled – quizzed, subjected to banter
• petite dame – dear woman
• pillau - mutton and boiled rice
• Phoebus - Apollo, chief ancient Greek god
• placens uxor – a pleasing wife
• plaque - badge of his order
• plucked (19th Century university sense) – failed
• polyandria polygynia – polyandria order, polygynia classification (of plants)
• pommes de terre au naturel – plain potatoes
• porter – dark brown beer
• potage – soup
• potage de moutons a l’ecossaise – Scottish style mutton soup
• poulet – chicken, but also used in the novel for letter to a lover
• pretendu – future husband
• prodigated - produced in plenty
• que voulez-vous – what do you want?
• quod – prison
• raffole – doting
• rally - rail (at)
• ravissante - very beautiful
• reapayther- repeater watch
• redoutes – redoubts (fortresses)
• Reine des Amours – Queen of Loves
• reunion – fashionable entertainment
• robe de chamber – bedrobe
• rouge et noir – roulette
• rum-shrub - acidic fruit juice, sugar and rum
• saufen - to booze
• schimmels – white horses
• schinken - ham
• Schlafrock - dressing gown
• schrecklich - dreadful
• Sehnsucht nach der Liebe – longing for love
• sentoit le genievre - smell or taste the gin
• serred – kept close
• Silenus – tutor of Bacchus the wine god
• sillery - a type of champagne
• son homme a elle – husband
• sospiri - sighs
• sournois – cunning
• spunging-house – enforced lodging-house for gentleman debtors
• stilettos in the fourgons – stilettos in the military wagons
• table de hote - communal table of a hotel
• taken the pas of him – trumped him, taken precedence
• tarboosh – a red cap, a type of fez
• tartines – slices of bread and butter, with or without preserve
• tatties (form of Indian cooling) - fragrant grass mat hung at doors and windows
• tax-cart - lightly taxed spring cart

• Tenez, Madame, est-ce qu’il n’est pas aussi a l’armee, mon homme a moi? – Hold on Madame, is my husband not also in the army?

• tergiversation - evasion
• the Medulla – a book for children, difficult to get more information now
• ton - style, or breeding
• tres aimable – very lovable
• triste visite chez mon oncle - sad visit to my uncle
• trouvaille - godsend, windfall
• unprepossessing – does not impress favourably
• Vehmgericht – vigilante secret court in Westphalia mainly in 14th and 15th centuries
• ventre a terre - body leaning forward
• vertu – virtue or quality, power
• yataghan – Turkish sword
• lozenge upon which three lambs trottant argent upon a field vert of the Southdowns were quartered with sable on a bend, or three snuff-mulls gules, the cognizance of the house of Binkie - heraldic lozenge upon which three silver trotting lambs on a green field of the South Downs with black dividing it into quarters (although a sable bend is a black strip running from top left to bottom right - is Thackeray having a joke?), or three red snuff-mills, the crest of the Binkie family

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