Tropic of Capricorn Glossary

Glossary of Terms

adroitly

skillfully

agate

a variety of quartz

Apollinaire

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), the French poet who coined the word "surrealism" and is considered one of the first surrealist writers

Bergson, Henri

French philosopher (1859-1941)

caisson

a watertight apparatus used to perform underwater construction work (in this case on the Brooklyn Bridge)

calcimined

washed or covered with calcimine (a liquid containing water, zinc oxide, glue and coloring and used to clean walls)

catalepsy

a nervous condition with symptoms including rigidity of the muscles

celestial

referring to the sky or the heavens

Cendrars

Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961), a French poet considered one of the fathers of modern poetry

Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company of North America

the company at which Henry Miller works early in the book; likely refers to the Western Union Telegraph Company, at which the real-life Henry Miller worked

Czerny

Carl Czerny (1791-1857), an Austrian composer known for his piano etudes

Czolgosz

Leon Frank Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley

Dadaists

members of a cultural movement (roughly, from 1916 to 1920) that began in Switzerland and rejected many of the current standards in arts and criticism

Ernst, Max

German artist and poet (1891-1976); major Dadaist and Surrealist figure

glissando

a musical term indicating a glide across pitches

Helen

a character in the Iliad who is famed for her great beauty; steals away with Paris, prince of Troy, thereby igniting the Trojan War

hypogastric

relating to the lower region of the abdomen

idolatry

inappropriate or excessive devotion to something

interstitial

existing in the narrow areas between tissues or organ parts

Juno

Roman goddess of marriage

maharanee

a Hindu princess

Methuselah

a character from Genesis who is renowned for having lived to an incredibly old age

naphtha

any number of flammable hydrocarbon mixtures

octogenarian

someone in his/her eighties

peristaltic

relating to peristalsis, involuntary muscle contractions that involuntary force the contents of the esophagus or intestine forward

postpineal lobe

a region of the brain

self-abnegation

setting aside one's own interests in the name of others or a belief

Whitman, Walt

American poet (1819-1892) famed for his celebrations of defiance and non-conformism; often considered the pioneer of free verse