GLOSSARY OF FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES
A demain (Fr.) see you tomorrow
à fond (Fr.) thoroughly
à propos (Fr.) relevance, timeliness
Aber (Ger.) Just a minute, hold on
Abort (Ger.) latrine
Assez (Fr.) enough
ah, ça (Fr.) an exclamation of insistence
ambitieux (Fr.) one who is ambitious
Amoureuse (Fr.) lover, femme fatale
Angriff (Ger.) attack, onslaught
au courant (Fr., and Eng. by adoption) up to date, acquainted with what’s going on
Auf wiedersehen (Ger.) goodbye
Ausgelassenheit (Ger.) exuberance, boisterousness
bas-fonds (Fr.) the lower depths
Bureau de Tabac (Fr.) a tobacconist’s counter, typically found inside a café
béguin (Fr., colloquial) infatuation
Bengel (Ger.) rascal
blagueur (Fr.) joker
Boulevardier (Fr.) man about town
calinerie (Fr.) coaxing, cajoling
Celui-là (Fr.) that one
C’est peu! (Fr.) That’s not much!
cet oiseau-la (Fr.) that character
c’etait une idée (Fr.) There was an idea
champs de manœuvres (Fr.) parade grounds
crime passionel (Fr.) a murder committed in the heat of passion, usually sparked by discovery of a lover’s unfaithfulness, often dealt with leniently by the French courts
cochon (Fr.) swine
commerçante (Fr.) shopkeeper
Comment (Fr.) What?
coup (Fr.) blow, sudden move
crapule (Fr.) good-for-nothing
de rigueur (Fr., and Eng. by adoption) obligatory, particularly in matters of etiquette and fashion
Débit (Fr.), short for débit de boissons, bar
déchéance (Fr.) degeneration, decline
Dis (Fr.) Say
dumm (Ger.) stupid, dense
enceinte (Fr.) pregnant
en maître (Fr.) like the master, in charge
entresol (Fr.) mezzanine, an intermediate floor between the main floors of a building
erdball (Ger.) globe
esprit de corps (Fr.) group morale, often military
Et alors? (Fr.) So what?
femme de ménage (Fr.) cleaning lady
fiançailles (Fr.) engagement
flic (Fr. slang) cop
fougue (Fr.) ardour, spirit
Foute-moi donc la paix, imbécile! (Fr.) Get lost, idiot!
Freiherr (Ger.) baron
Gang (Ger.) hallway
garçon (Fr.) waiter
Garçon, l’addition (Fr.) Waiter, cheque please
Geist (Ger.) spirit, mind
Geschmack (Ger.) taste
gigot (Fr.) leg of mutton or lamb
gnädiges Fräulein (Ger.) gracious lady
grande amoureuse (Fr.) a great lover (female)
grands messieurs du Berne (Fr.) great men of the Berne
Heraus! (Ger.) Get out!
Herrgott (Ger., interjection) (by) Christ
Himmel (Ger., interjection) Heavens
Hoch (Ger.) Raise your glass (to)
Ich danke sehr (Ger.) Much obliged
Ich hasse dich (Ger.) I hate you
Il n’y a rien pour vous (Fr.) There’s nothing for you
intime (Fr.) intimate; also used in English as a self-conscious gallicism
Ja (Ger.) yes
Je ne demande pas mieux! (Fr.) That sounds good to me
Knabe (Ger.) youngster
lasse (Fr.) weary
liebhaberei (Ger.) hobby
loge (Fr.) a caretaker’s lodge, either a dedicated living space within an apartment or rooming house or a separate dwelling adjacent to it
Mathematiker (Ger.) mathematician
méchant (Fr.) malicious
même jeu (Fr.) the same story
mœurs (Fr.) manners and customs
Mokka (Ger.) mocha, coffee
mon Dieu! (Fr.) My God!
Monsieur est distrait aujourd’hui (Fr.) The gentleman is absentminded today
Na (Ger., interjection) Well!
Na ja! (Ger., interjection) more typically naja, ‘Well now!’, implying a degree of ironic detachment
ne plus ultra (Lat.) to the most extreme possible degree
noch einmal (Ger.) once again
nom d’amour (Fr.) pet name
Oh là là (Fr.) variant of ‘Ooh là là’, an expression of pleased surprise, often used by a man to comment upon the appearance of an attractive woman
parti (Fr.) a suitable romantic or marital match
passe-partout (Fr.) a skeleton or master key
Passez votre chemin! (Fr.) Move along!
perbacco (It., interjection) from ‘By Bacchus’, used to emphasize a positive comment
Pfui (Ger.) interjection of disgust, comparable to English ‘ugh’
pièce de résistance (Fr.) originally ‘the most substantial dish of a meal’, now more generally ‘the prize item in a collection’
plat du jour (Fr.) the daily special
pommes a l’huile (Fr.) a potato salad, made at times with onion and mustard, and dressed with oil and vinegar
poseuse (Fr., and Eng. by adoption) a female poseur, one adopting an affected or pretentious persona
pour rire (Fr.) laughable
premier venu (Fr.) the first person who comes along
procédés (Fr.) processes, behaviours
Prosit (Ger.) a toast; ‘Cheers!’
Quel type! (Fr.) What a character!
quoi? (Fr.) What?
raison d’être (Fr.) reason for existence
Rapin (Fr.) an apprentice painter
Reisebureau (Ger.) travel or tourist agency
Salaud (Fr.) bastard
sans gêne (Fr.) lack of embarrassment or restraint
sekt (Ger.) sparkling wine
Schatz (Ger.) sweetheart, lit. ‘treasure’
Schauspielerin (Ger.) actress
Schicksal (Ger.) fate
Schurke! (Ger.) Scoundrel!
Schwein (Ger.) pig
Schweinerai (Ger.) disgusting mess, lit. ‘piggishness’
Schön (Ger.) Very well
Sois pas bête! (Fr.) Don’t be stupid!
sommelier (Fr., and Eng. by adoption) wine steward
sotto voce (It.) in hushed tones
sympathisch (Ger.) likeable, congenial
Table d’hôte (Fr.) lit. ‘the host’s table’, a common table for boarders at a boarding house
tableau vivant (Fr.) lit. ‘a living picture’—a motionless person or group of people theatrically posed and costumed to represent a well-known work of art
Tant pis (Fr.) Too bad
terrasse (Fr.) the outside eating area of a café
tête à tête (Fr.) at close quarters, lit. ‘face to face’
Tor (Ger.) fool
Tout de suite (Fr.) right away
types (Fr.) guys, blokes
Va-t’en! (Fr.) Go away!
vieille barbe (Fr.) grey beard, old bore
vis-à-vis (Fr.) person facing opposite
Was heisst das (Ger.) What does that mean?
Was wünschen Sie (Ger.) What can I do for you?
Wunderbar (Ger.) wonderful
Zigeuner (Ger.) gypsies
Zut (Fr., interjection) damn
1 Ezra Pound, ‘Wyndham Lewis’ (1920), in Literary Essays of Ezra Pound (New York: New Directions, 1968), 424.
2 T. S. Eliot, ‘Tarr’, The Egoist, 5/8 (Sept. 1918), 106, and ‘Contemporanea’, The Egoist, 5/6 (June–July 1918), 84.
3 The Egoist, 5/9 (Oct. 1918), 124.
4 See e.g. Fredric Jameson, Fables of Aggression: Wyndham Lewis, the Modernist as Fascist (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979), and other critical works listed in the Select Bibliography.
5 See Paul O’Keeffe, Some Sort of Genius: A Life of Wyndham Lewis (London: Jonathan Cape, 2000), 93, 106
, and 108.
9 Wyndham Lewis (ed.), Blast 1 (1914; repr. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1981), 30.
6 See O’Keeffe on Lewis’s early infatuation with Dostoyevsky and Goethe (Some Sort of Genius, 70) and how Lewis urged the ‘disreputable Slav literature’ of Dostoyevsky on Kate Lechmere around 1912 (ibid. 122). Rebecca West notably compared Kreisler to Dostoyevsky’s character Stravrogin from The Possessed in an early review (‘Tarr’, The Nation (10 Aug. 1918); repr. in Agenda, 7/3 and 8/1 (Autumn–Winter, 1969–70), 67) and Pound wrote ‘He is the only English writer who can be compared with Dostoyevsky’ (‘Wyndham Lewis’, 424).
7 Pound, ‘Wyndham Lewis’, 424.
8 Ford Madox Ford, ‘Dedicatory Letter to Stella Ford’, in The Good Soldier, ed. Thomas C. Moser (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 4.
10 For an exemplary instance of this effect, see Giacomo Balla’s painting Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912), which represents the frenetic movements of a dachshund’s legs and tail as a blur of overlapping images.
11 See e.g. Marinetti’s statement in ‘The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism’ that younger Futurists will in the future ‘attempt to kill us, driven by a hatred all the more implacable because their hearts will be intoxicated with love and admiration for us’ (Futurism: An Anthology, ed. Lawrence Rainey, Christine Poggi, and Laura Whitman (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009), 53).
12 ‘The Death of Futurism’, The Egoist, 4/1 (Jan. 1917), 7.
13 See O’Keeffe, Some Sort of Genius, 173.
14 Lawrence’s best-known statement on Marinetti and Futurism is found in his letter of 5 June 1914 to Edward Garrett. See The Letters of D. H. Lawrence, vol. ii. 1913–1916, ed. George J. Zytaruk and James T. Boulton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 180.
15 Blasting & Bombardiering (2nd rev. ed., Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967), 30.
16 Wyndham Lewis, Doom of Youth (Chatto and Windus, 1932; repr. Haskell House Publishers, 1973), 10.
17 Futurism: An Anthology, 119.
18 Wyndham Lewis, Rude Assignment: An Intellectual Autobiography, ed. Toby Foshay (Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1984), 165.
19 Blasting & Bombardiering, 88.
20 Letter of Mar. 1916, The Letters of Wyndham Lewis, ed. W. K. Rose (Norfolk, Conn.: New Directions, 1963), 76.
1 Modernism and the Culture of Market Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 215.
2 See Paul O’Keeffe, Some Sort of Genius: A Life of Wyndham Lewis (London: Jonathan Cape, 2000), 206.
3 Wyndham Lewis Collection, Cornell University, Box 164.
4 Blasting & Bombardiering, 2nd rev. edn. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967), 90.
5 Wyndham Lewis Collection, Box 96, folders 37 and 135.
6 For more complete discussions of the differences between the various editions and their editorial histories, see Tarr: The 1918 Version, ed. Paul O’Keeffe (Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1990), and Stephen Sturgeon, ‘Wyndham Lewis’s Tarr: A Critical Edition’, unpublished PhD diss., Boston University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2007.
7 The Enemy 2 (1929), p. ix.
1 Rude Assignment: An Intellectual Autobiography, ed. Toby Foshay (Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1984), 162.
2 The poet and artist Sturge Moore (1870–1944) had written to Lewis, ‘I rather regret the preface and epilogue: they will distract reflection from the book itself to the doctrine it will be supposed to illustrate … they are like a rope anchoring it to Pound’s Little World, whereas it might sail the blue quite unattached with advantage’ (The Letters of Wyndham Lewis, ed. W. K. Rose (Norfolk, Conn.: New Directions, 1963), Sept. 1918, p. 99). In his review of Tarr for the Little Review Pound noted a similar stricture, writing that in comparison to Kreisler, ‘Tarr is less clearly detached from his creator. The author has evidently suspected this, for he has felt the need of disclaiming Tarr in a preface’ (Little Review (1918); repr. in Literary Essays of Ezra Pound (New York: New Directions Books, 1968), 425).
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