H.M.S. SURPRISE, page 39
ex gratia: out of grace, without obligation (L)
CHAPTER TWO
in posse: potentially (L)
haut relievo: a good tang or savor (F+I; lit= ‘high relief’)
bonne mot: good word, witticism (F; should be bon mot)
Honneur and Patier: F: intended to be ‘honneur and patrie’, i.e. honour and the fatherland
bannière de partance: departure flag; ie the ‘Blue Peter’ (F)
pavillion de beaupré: bowsprit flag (F)
misaine: foremast (F)
hunes de perroquet: lit: tops of the topgallants (F; presumably the cross-trees at the junction of the topmast and topgallant masts; perroquet is literally ‘little parrot’, but is a t’gallant in nautical parlance)
Deh vieni, non tardar: O come, do not delay. (It; sung by Susanna in Act IV of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro)
CHAPTER THREE
Parlez-vous français?: Do you speak French? (F)
hijos de puta: sons of a whore (Sp)
Ohé, de la barca: Ahoy, in the boat (S)
cuatro groupos, cinco minutos: four groups, five minutes (S)
foch: fire (Catalan)
J’arrive, mon capitaine.: I’m coming, Captain. (F)
Qu’est-ce que ce remue-ménage?: What’s this commotion? (F; lit: ‘household-disturbance’)
Vous êtes un officier anglais, monsieur?: Are you an English Officer, Sir? (F)
Chez le Colonel.: At the Colonel’s house / with the Colonel (F)
En Maragall, valga’m Deu: Maragall, Sir, my God! (Catalan)
cochons: pigs (F)
CHAPTER FOUR
sequelae: consequences, symptoms (L)
baraka: an innate, God-given, spiritual force (Arabic)
engouement: sudden passion (F)
ancien régime: the old system (ie: pre-revolutionary France) (F)
les agissements néfastes de Sir Blaine: the wicked machinations of Sir Blaine (F)
le perfide Sir Blaine: the faithless Sir Blaine (F)
Swiving Monachorum: A convincing-looking English placename, but in fact meaning ‘Fucking of the Monks’ (Old E + L)
au courant: up to date (F)
CHAPTER FIVE
aqua regia: royal water (L = a 50-50 mix of nitric and sulphuric acids)
sequi me: follow me (L)
Erin go bragh: Ireland for Ever (Ir)
carcinoma, lupus, sarcoma: malignant tumour, skin disease (lit. ‘wolf’), tumour (L, L, Gk)
summum bonum: the highest good (L)
protégés: favourites (F)
lingua franca: a common tongue (ie: a common language based on a mixture of many different ones) (L)
CHAPTER SIX
magma: thick ointment (Gk)
tes moeurs crapuleuses: your sordid morals / habits (F)
tu cherches à corrompre mon paresseux: you are trying to corrupt my sloth (F)
va donc, eh, salop: come on then, you bastard (F)
espèce de fripouille: you silly cad (F; espèce = lit: ‘type’, but espèce d’idiot = ‘silly idiot’)
ad captandum vulgus: to deceive the rabble (L)
hauteur: haughtiness (F)
Belle Poule: Pretty Hen (F; poule also = ‘a racy girl’)
arcus senilis: old man’s ring (L; the pale ring that appears around the eye’s iris in the elderly)
syncope: stroke (Gk)
‘Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo… Hyssopo et super nivem dealbabor.’: Full quote: Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor. ‘Sprinkle me with the hyssop twigs, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.’ (L; Psalms 51:7)
CHAPTER SEVEN
parama-hamsa: lit: supreme soul; an ascetic of utmost sanctity (Hindi)
gymnosophist: naked sage (Gk)
fibula: lit: a brooch or clasp; here meaning that a fastener has been used to close Dil’s sexual organs, to ensure her chastity (L)
bhang: hasish (Hindi)
menarche: onset of menstruation (Gk)
garçon manqué: would-be boy; a ‘tom-boy’ (F)
bonus nullius: a piece of property belonging to no-one (L)
ménage: household (F)
outré: showy (F)
Autres pays, autre merde: Other countries, other shit (F; Aubrey intends… autres moeurs = ‘other customs’.)
topi-wallah: lit: ‘hat man’; generally means ‘a European’ (Hindi)
syce: groom (Anglo-Indian, from Arabic saa’is)
pandit: scholar (Hindi)
bahadur: sir / lord (Hindi)
chit: a piece of paper (Hindi)
glacis: a sloping apron built at the foot of a fort wall (F, Eng)
lapis lazuli: lit: stone of azure (L)
dulce loquentem, dulce ridentem: Full quote: dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo dulce loquentem, ‘I shall love Lalage, who laughs and talks so sweetly’ (L; Horace, Odes I)
bidpai chhatta: ? (Hindi; chaat is a term for various types of spicy appetizers, eg aloo chaat – potato, murgh chaat, chicken)
punkah: ceiling fan (Hindi)
trompe-couillon: lit: cheat-the-testicles (F; = a trick to take in ‘suckers’; couillon being a vulgar term for ‘a gullible fool’)
nunc et in hora mortis nostrae: now and at the hour of our death (L; nostrate in some editions is a typo; from the Catholic Ave Maria / ‘Hail Mary’ prayer)
CHAPTER EIGHT
roi de trente-six parapluies, et très illustre seigneur de mille éléphants: King with thirty six umbrellas, and illustrious Lord of a thousand elephants (F)
un gentilhomme est toujours gentilhomme: a gentleman is always a gentleman (F)
placebo: lit: I shall be pleasing / acceptable (L; = a drug whose effects are psychological rather than physiological)
Heautontimoroumenos: The Self-Tormenting One (Gk; the title of a Latin play by Terence, an adaptation of an earlier Greek work)
Io triumphe: Hurrah for the Triumph! (L; the phrase chanted by the principal celebrant – known as The Triumph – of the religious procession commemorating past victories)
outré: showy (F)
pianissimo: as quietly as possible (It)
haud crede colore: don’t trust the colour (L)
Te Deum: To you, God (L)
reculing pour mew sauter: drawing back to make a better leap (bad F – correct is reculer pour mieux sauter)
ghee: clarified butter (Hindi)
CHAPTER TEN
compassé: formal or stiff (F)
sub deo: under God [‘s protection] (L)
peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo et opere: I have sinned beyond measure in thought, word and deed (L; part of the Roman Catholic confession)
CHAPTER ELEVEN
brawly feckit: bravely done (Scots)
arma virumque cano.: Of war (i.e. weapons) and the man I sing (L; the opening line of Virgil’s Aeneid)
…ast illi solvuntur frigore membra vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras: …but his limbs became numb with the cold and his life, distaining to bear this, fled down into the shadows with a sigh. (L; the final two lines of Virgil’s Aeneid)
testudo aubreii: Aubrey’s tortoise (L)
absit, o absit omen: Let it not, O let it not be an omen! (L)
Camara de Lobos: Chamber of Wolves (Portuguese)
ataraxy: indifference (Gk)
HMS Surprise (epub), H.M.S. SURPRISE
