The Death of Grass

Glossary

1

Prodrome: preliminary book or treatise, introductory section

2

Westmorland: English county, now part of Cumbria

3

Boy’s Own Paper: boys’ magazine, popular earlier in this century

4

gill: deep and often wooded ravine

5

Cyclop: one-eyed giant of Greek mythology who made thunderbolts for Zeus, ruler of the gods

6

any road: at any rate (slang)

7

good lie: favourable situation or position

8

purchase: hold or grip

9

pony-trap: lightweight carriage drawn by a pony, seating one or two, including the driver

10

born for a hanging: able to survive any danger

11

aftermath: consequences

12

townie: one who lives in a town

13

hybrid: composed of different or opposite elements

14

clod: slow-witted, dull person (slang)

15

New Statesman: radical weekly paper

16

decorum: proper behaviour

17

pictures: the cinema

18

statute: law

19

drop in the ocean: minute amount

20

Chinks: Chinese (slang)

21

Dives: Luke 16, the parable of Dives and Lazarus, the rich and the poor man

22

skyscrapers: the multi-storey buildings that dominate the skyline of certain cities

23

culms: jointed, hollow stems of grasses

24

genera: plural of genus, a class or group containing several kinds of related plants (or animals) having common structural characteristics

25

putrefying: rotting

26

dummy: in bridge, the hand of a dealer or dealer’s partner, turned up and played by the declarer

27

rubber: three successive games (or two games won by the same side) between sides or persons in bridge

28

finessing: playing the lower card with the hope of winning the trick (though still holding a higher card)

29

true colours: real characteristics or thoughts

30

United Nations: formed from the nations who defeated Italy, Germany and Japan in World War II (1939–45).

31

field tests: practical demonstrations

32

isotope: one or more forms (of an element) with the same atomic number, same chemical properties etc., but differing in atomic weight and in nuclear properties such as radioactivity

33

Magnificat: Hymn of the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:46-55)

34

Taj Mahal: the massive, splendid mausoleum at Agra, India, built in the 17th century by the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favourite wife

35

whitewash: concealment of faults or errors

36

throwback: living in the past

37

first tack: the first idea for a solution

38

lick: defeat (slang)

39

hop on the wagon: do something because it is popular (usually bandwagon)

40

Martian: supposed inhabitant of the planet Mars

41

hedge my bets: play safe, make sure that I am covered against all risks

42

tighten our belts: eat less, ration ourselves

43

House of Representatives: the lower House of the Congress of the United States

44

Plimsoll line: load line on outside of merchant ship showing the limit to which it may sink in the water when loaded (after Samuel Plimsoll, English MP)

45

hats … that might be eaten: from the proverbial expression ‘to eat one’s hat’, meaning to retract all that one has said in the event of being proved wrong

46

licked: defeated (slang)

47

commons, short: reduced rations of food

48

Order-in-Council: sovereign’s order on some matter of administration, given on the advice of the Privy Council (body of advisers to the sovereign)

49

rescinded: cancelled

50

Haydn: Austrian-born composer (1732–1809)

51

Black Death: the bubonic plague. Originated in Asia, reached England in lethal form in 1348-9. The skin of victims was blackened.

52

oscillate: move from one side to the other and back

53

spooned out: fed roughly, simply, as if to a child

54

crack-up: collapse

55

bolt-hole: hiding place

56

hauteur: haughtiness of manner

57

UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

58

feel the pinch: suffer hardship

59

out of key: not in harmony with what is happening

60

off his rocker: mad (slang)

61

worriter: worrier (dialect)

62

mesh: engage

63

balloon’s up, The: The crisis has occurred.

64

true-blue: loyal

65

game, set and match: the final game in the final set, which clinches the victory (tennis)

66

millennium: one thousand years

67

pipe-line: channel of communication

68

palace revolution: having limited effects, not changing the ultimate power

69

washing his hands: keeping himself clean (not being held responsible for the shedding of blood)

70

cinema organ: in cinemas of the period (1950s) there was frequently an interlude in which an organist played music

71

court-martial: trial of a member of the Armed Forces, conducted by officers, for offences against military law

72

ditch: abandon (slang)

73

edged: sharp, nervous

74

urbs in rure: town in country, that is, an urban and rural area

75

Vanguard: popular make of car in the 1950s

76

Austin: popular make of car

77

chattels: goods, possessions

78

jaywalkers: casual pedestrians ignoring traffic while crossing the road

79

ammo: abbreviation for ammunition, bullets

80

Bisley shot: expert marksman; Bisley is a village in Surrey where the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association is held.

81

Advance the guards: the ordering of a regiment into action

82

clay-pipes: targets in a rifle range at a fairground

83

Citroen: large car, popular at the time

84

wind-up (to have the): very frightened

85

just the job: exactly right

86

“Teddy-Bears’ Picnic”: popular song of the period reflecting childish innocence

87

Benzedrine: drug that stimulates the heart and causes sleeplessness

88

posted: signposted

89

gatehouse: small building in which the signalman would operate the signals and the gates at the level crossing

90

Napoleon: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821), great French soldier and Emperor, finally defeated at Waterloo (1815)

91

Superman: the famous cartoon character of superhuman strength and moral commitment to the law

92

high term: an exaggeration

93

bunk-up: help somebody up by bending down so that he/she can climb on your back

94

blackthorn: the sloe, a thorny shrub that has white flowers and small black fruit

95

Bizerta: port in Libya, scene of much fighting between the British and the Italian/German forces in World War II.

96

tail-end Charlie: in the rear (of a convoy of cars)

97

phlegm: calm nature

98

Skipper: leader

99

Eton: famous public school founded by Henry VI in 1440 to prepare scholars for Cambridge

100

Borstal: one of a number of institutions where young criminals are detained and given reformatory training

101

Bow bells: the bells of St Mary-le-Bow, a church in Cheapside, London.

102

blowing the gaff: revealing a secret (slang)

103

Vesuvius: active volcano near Naples in Italy

104

Dunkirk (spirit): typifying the courage of all those who saved the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940 when it was overrun by the Germans. They were evacuated in all the small boats that could be mustered.

105

Nero: Roman Emperor (AD 37–68), said to have fiddled while Rome burned. A brutal tyrant.

106

custodians: policemen, guardians

107

toll-gate: bar or gate across a road where taxes had to be paid by road-users

108

customs house: where customs duties are collected at a seaport

109

Hastings, Battle of: where William the Conqueror defeated the Saxons under King Harold (1066)

110

Babel (tower of): In the Book of Genesis the people of Babylon tried to build a tower to reach Heaven. God did not wish this, so he destroyed the tower and confused their language so that they could not understand each other.

111

concupiscence: lust, sexual desire

112

cuckold: man whose wife has been sexually unfaithful to him

113

cubby-hole: small office

114

skylark: play about

115

British Summer Time: one hour in advance of ordinary time to facilitate the use of daylight

116

Greenwich Mean Time: standard time in Great Britain

117

Dalesmen: inhabitants of the Yorkshire dales

118

woad: blue-black or green dye used by the Ancient Britons

119

spark test: used to see if the sparking plug (in the internal combustion engine of a car) is firing properly. (Millicent uses the phrase when she is ‘testing’ John’s sexual response)

120

kick: pleasure (slang)

121

erotic services: sexual favours

122

gainsay: deny

123

temerity: nerve

124

press-gang: group of men employed, particularly in the wars against Napoleon, to take men for the armed services

125

entourage: those attending the leader

126

pipe-dream: vision (based on the extravagant fantasy induced by smoking opium)

127

hell: till hell freezes over, i.e. an impossibility

128

Jerries: Germans (army slang)

129

Fusiliers: infantry regiment

130

going to the wall: being killed

131

summat: something (dialect)

132

happen: perhaps (dialect)

133

gabbers: those who talk too much (slang)

134

fealty: loyalty (feudal tenants’ fidelity to the lord)

135

beholden: obliged, indebted to

136

martial law: military government, civil law having been suspended

137

cirrus: high, wispy cloud

138

bought it: killed (slang)

139

fixated: obsessed by

140

reveille: waking signal in armed services, sounded in the morning by bugle or drums

141

Sabine woman: According to the legend, the Sabine women were carried off by the Romans, but grew so fond of their captors that they placed their bodies between them and their vengeful husbands.

142

camber: slight convexity of surface

143

utility: vehicle used for a number of purposes

144

Cain: eldest son of Adam, who killed his brother Abel

145

Enoch: eldest son of Cain (Genesis 4:17)

146

milk and honey: abundance, plenty