Anglo-Saxon expletives –
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Dante – Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), the author of the great Italian poem
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Jacquie – the author's wife
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dinosaur ['dainaso:] – an extinct gigantic reptile what with the Aduana and this bloody tapir… – This emphatic construction is used when enumerating the various causes of one's distress, embarrassment and the like.
the
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to put one's mind to something – to direct one's thoughts towards it, to set one's mind on doing something simpatico
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fur seal – a warm-blooded, fish-eating animal, found chiefly in cold regions; fur seal is hunted for its valuable fur.
elephant seal – a species of seal, so called on account of the shape of the male's nose which resembles an elephant's trunk, and also on account of its elephantine size (the male measures as much as 5.5 m in length and weighs up to 3.5 tons); now almost entirely destroyed.
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to warm to somebody – to begin liking somebody hotter by and by to win somebody over – to make somebody take a liking to you, feel friendly towards you to decide somebody – to cause somebody to come to a decision
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Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882) – the great English naturalist, founder of the theory of evolution. In 1831-36 he made a voyage round the world on board the
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deer-stalker hat
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eucalyptus tree – a tree of the myrtle family; most of the trees of this genus are important timber trees, and some secrete resinous gums (e. g. the Australian gum-tree)
like leprous limbs – like the arms and legs of people affected with leprosy, a chronic infectious disease characterized by a thickening and ulceration of the skin estancia
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tattoo [ta'tu:] – a continuous tapping or knocking
Hola!
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Hablo con la patrona?
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nodded off – fell suddenly asleep
Scotch = Scotch whisky
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dust-devil – a mass of dust whirling rapidly round and round in cylindrical or funnel shape
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I ever dream = that I ever dreamed of (i.e. imagined). In the next remark the same verb is used in a different meaning: 'to see in sleep'.
introduction –
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to make out with something
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crow's feet – wrinkles at the outer corner of the eye to sum up somebody – to form a final opinion or judgment of somebody
Si, si, como no?
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cacophonous – unmelodious
T. B. ['ti:'bi:] –
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came into their own –
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Trafalgar Square lions – the four bronze figures of lions, which lie with their heads thrown back, and fore paws stretched out, decorating the corners of the quadrangular base of the Nelson column in Trafalgar Square, London
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magenta – a brilliant crimson color scrunched our way – made our way noisily grinding the gravel under the wheels of the car (cf. note to p. 20)
to switchback – to follow a zigzag route in a mountainous region peon ['pi:on] – in Mexico and Spanish South America, a laborer, especially one working to pay off a debt bombachas
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asado
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manana
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headwaiter – chief waiter at a restaurant, generally wearing a black suit and a snow-white shirt-front; the author compares penguins to head waiters because of their coloring, and also because of their peculiar shuffling gait biscuit-colored – of the characteristic light-brown colour of biscuit, i.e. porcelain after the first firing and before being glazed or painted guanaco [gwar'neikou] -a wild llama ['la:ma] of the Andes with reddish-brown wool
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finger –
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debutante I'debjuta:nt] – a girl making her first appearance in society, especially (in England) a girl presented to the king and queen at court outsize – too big for one wattle – a fold of loose flesh hanging from the neck of some birds, i.e. turkeys nerve – self-control, courage
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jig-saw puzzle – a picture pasted on board and cut in irregular pieces with a jig-saw; one has to fit the pieces together so as to make the picture (common children's game)
to negotiate –
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to throw one off balance – to make one lose one's balance
all-in wrestling match – a general struggle to run the gauntlet – as a punishment, to run between two lines of men who strike the victim as he passes to regurgitate – to bring (partly-digested food) from the stomach back to the mouth; to get one to do something – to make one do it
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in no uncertain fashion – without hesitation or doubt, in a determined, resolute manner from stem to stern – from the front to the back part of a ship, throughout the whole length of the ship;
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Vacanttum – probably Vacant-tum (my), empty belly (the word looks amusingly like a biological term of Latin origin)
the product of an unhappy home-life – a cliche of modern sociological writings, here used ironically
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melee ['melei]
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a diaphanous garment – a transparent one, one through which the contours of the body are clearly seen mammary development (cf. below
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breath-taking – so striking as to take one's breath away, make one breathless with astonishment and admiration boleadoras
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passing –
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Margate – the favorite seaside resort of London holiday-makers left-overs
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to pull somebody's leg – to make fun of somebody to get one's own back on somebody – to take one's revenge
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armadillo [ama'dilou] – a burrowing animal of South America, with a body encased in bony armour, and a habit of rolling itself up into a ball when in danger castanetted their beaks – made a sound like a pair of castanets with their beaks thumb-smudges of cloud – the author compares the clouds visible here and there in the sky with smudges of paint left on a canvas by a careless painter's thumb