A Patrick Leigh Fermor Glossary

Since completing the first two parts (A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water) of Patrick Leigh Fermor's as-yet unfinished trilogy (the final, posthumous volume is apparently being assembled for publication as early as next year) recounting his journey between Holland and Constantinople in the early 1930s, I've been compiling a list of some of the more unusual and striking words he uses in these books. Many of them come from the worlds of medieval European architecture, horsemanship, agriculture, warfare, and nobility/heraldry, among other more or less arcane subjects, along with Britishisms and a few archaic words that Fermor must've just liked the sound of. It's a tribute to Fermor's writing that somehow these books make for very smooth and enjoyable reading despite being minefields of obscure words.

I'm not sure whether I'll be able to summon the courage to go through this exercise with Between the Woods and the Water, but here are some of the best and, to me, most unusual words I found in A Time of Gifts, presented roughly in the order they were encountered in the text:

impecunious - penniless
teazles - plant, genus Dipsacus
spinney - a small wood with undergrowth or a thorny thicket
pursuivant - officer of arms, ranking below a herald
aedile - type of Roman official
puttee - strip of cloth wound spirally around the lower leg or a leather legging covering the same area
oleograph - color lithograph in imitation of oil paint
jonkheer - Dutch honorific, “young lord”
besom - broom made of bundled twigs
punctilio - minute detail of (often ceremonial) conduct
aurochs - European wild cattle, ancestors of domestic cattle, Bos primigenius
impedimenta - baggage or objects that impede or encumber
gorgeted - wearing a collar-like piece of armour to protect the throat or (on a bird) having differently-colored feathers covering the same area
mangolds - Swiss chard
postilion - rider guiding the horses of a coach
beetle (noun) - heavy, wood-splitting maul
beetle (verb) - to be suspended over or overhang
caracoling - performing a half turn (by a horse and rider)
margravine - female aristocrat w/ military responsiblities in border territory of a kingdom (margrave is male)
ramify - to have complicating consequences or to divide into branchline parts
toper - drinker [interestingly, my search for this word also returned an image of Amy Winehouse]
undercroft - traditionally, a brick cellar, storage room or crypt, often vaulted
shako - tall cylindrical military cap
comitadjis (or komitadjis) - a band of resistance fighters or irregulars
machicolated - having machicolations - openings btwn. corbels of a projecting gallery or battlement through which stones, etc. could be dropped on attackers
velleity - slight or mild wish or inclination
puggaree - light scarf wrapped as a band around a sun helmet
sabretache - flat bag or pouch worn from the belt of a hussar calvary soldier along with the saber
uhlan - Polish or Prussian light cavalry
czapka - Polish cavalry hat
aigrette - tuft or spray of feathers (esp. from an egret) worn as a headdress
bustards - large, terrestrial European birds
capercaillies - large European grouse
roodscreen - ornamental partition separating choir from nave in Medieval churches
brindled - tawny or grayish with obscure streaks or spots of a darker color
fimbria - Latin for fringe, often used in science and medicine
monstrance - vessel for display of the Eucharistic host in Catholic churches
congener - a person or thing like another in character or action
ostler - stableman, esp. at an inn
purulent - suppurating, full of or discharging pus
ewer - vase-shaped pitcher
scumbled - softened or dulled color by application of thin opaque coat
grisaille - decorative painting in shades of gray, often to represent three-dimensional relief
hawser - thick nautical cable or rope for mooring or towing
loden - water-resistant material made from sheep’s wool, usually green and associated with Austrian traditional dress
junkers - landed nobility of Prussia and eastern Germany (perjorative)
mediatization - process by which a lesser state is annexed by a greater state, permitting ruler of lesser state to retain title
hospodar - Slavonic lord or “master”
boyars - Bulgarian or Old Russian aristocrats
quinquereme - ancient Roman galley with five banks of oars
cicerone - a museum or gallery guide for sightseers
pavane - slow, stately dance of the 16th and 17th centuries
baldachino (or baldacchino or baldachin or baldaquin) - canopy of state over an altar or throne (as Bernini’s in St. Peter’s), originally fabric, later of costlier materials
jocund - cheerful and lighthearted
cincture - belt or sash worn as a liturgical vestment
forage-cap - non-dress (“undress”) military cap, originating with the cap worn by 18th-century British cavalry while gathering forage for their horses
pelf - money, esp. acquired by dishonesty
guerdon - reward
fardel - pack or bundle
creel - wicker fisherman’s basket
kepi - cap with a flat circular top and a visor, associated with the French military
crapulous - marked by intemperance in eating/drinking
noctambulism - sleep walking
crosier - stylized pastoral staff carried by high church officials
manege - a riding academy
lavolta - a Renaissance dance
coranto (or courante or corrente) - a triple meter dance of the late Renaissance and Baroque era
limpet - type of gastropod/mollusk/snail
yatagan - Ottoman knife or short saber
damascened - decorated (metal) with patterns of inlay or etching
sapper - combat engineer
spahis - light cavalry of the French army recruited from North Africa
deracination - act or process of uprooting or displacement from native environment
tarn - glacial mountain lake or pool
spoor - track, trail, trace or scent of animal or person being tracked
danegeld - originally a tax raised in Anglo-Saxon England to pay tribute to Danish invaders or finance protection against them
virago - noisy, domineering woman or strong, heroic woman
swart - swarthy
puszta - Hungarian grassland/prairie
crockets - hook-shaped decorative elements in Gothic architecture
diapered (architecture) - decorated w/ geometric patterns
stickle-back - type of scaleless fish
banneret - rank of knight who led troops under his own banner
ogee - architectural molding in the shape of an s-curve
incunables - books printed in Europe before 1501
uncials - Greek and Latin capital-letter script used from 3rd to 8th Century
imberb - beardless [http://obsoleteword.blogspot.com/2008/05/imberb.html]
pargetted - plaster-coated, as a wall or chimney, often ornamental
irrefragable - irrefutable, indisputable
apricocks - apricots (archaic)
twigged - realized, understood
nacreous - pearly, iridescent (esp. of a cloud)
charabanc - open-topped horse-drawn or early motor coach used for sightseeing outings
dolman - Turkish robe-like garment or uniform jacket worn by hussars

Friday Must-Read - Sartre/Kafka Hell Train

One newsman's journey into darkness and despair on board a Philadelphia-bound Amtrak train (via The Awl).

Here's a representative sample:
Oh god, lights went out. Train totally dead. No one is telling us anything! Sitting in dark shivering. "Sartre"

I recommend this as a soundtrack for reading these tweets.

A Short List of Signs, Products, and Advertisements Spotted Recently in the Middle West

MR. BANJO'S DARI STOP

14 PC DARK FEAST W MEGA JUG

ALL MILK GALS 2.49 

HJ GLOVE XTREME PERFORMANCE*

CHAGRIN DR

*actual name of a golf glove 

Notes From The West Coast, Part Three - Drink

Being the final installment of my three-part "what I did on my winter vacation" report, in which I discuss liquid intoxicants.

Russian River Brewing Company
I'd need to have a little more of their product to be certain, but this might be the best microbrewery in America. And if you're ever in Santa Rosa, CA in the late afternoon/early evening and you don't have to drive or operate heavy machinery later that night, their happy hour is one helluva deal, especially considering what Russian River beer goes for (if you can even find it) on the East Coast.

For a while, I'd more or less sworn off aggressively hopped beers, having decided that they really weren't for me, but I've been changing my position on this lately. I still don't have any use for beers that feature a lot of hops and alcohol just for the sake of being "extreme", but I can now admit that strong, hoppy beers can feature flavors, really good flavors, that you can't get in other styles of beer. And Russian River's Pliny the Elder is one of the finest examples of this. I'd like to try some of their wine barrel-aged beers - the Pliny finished me off before I could - but I'd sure prefer to do it at the source and at those happy hour prices.

I realize that wine is much more dependent on and tied to the place it's made than beer is, but northern California, with breweries like Russian River, Bear Republic, Anchor, North Coast and Lagunitas, might actually be a better "beer region" than a "wine region" in terms of how it stacks up to the rest of the world (I wouldn't say this out loud Napa or Sonoma, though, unless I was in a microbrewery at the time).

Anchor Humming Ale
Had this small quantity release at a bar in San Francisco's Mission District, near Flour + Water (discussed in Part Two). Actually the bar was not far from the Anchor brewery, but, unfortunately, I didn't make it to the source. I've been a fan of Anchor's beers for many years now, and especially their limited run stuff (the 2009 edition of their special Christmas Ale was a really nice one), so I was excited to try this.

I'm not sure whether to call Humming a pale ale, an IPA, an APA, or what exactly, but I don't think I've had anything quite like it. This is about all I can do by way of description: light color, on the refreshing/drinkable side, noticeable hops but not a "hop monster" - the hoppiness came through in the form of some (mostly bitterish) flavors I can't quite pin down. If I got the chance, I'd definitely try this again, if only to get a better handle on it. (The expert palates at Beer Advocate weigh in here.)

Wine - Sonoma & Kermit Lynch

After a little while in the California wine country, my bourgeois-o-meter started going off. You can't swing a cat without hitting a piece of wine-themed kitsch decor, and visiting the wineries' tasting rooms brought me face-to-face with my fear that enjoying and being interested in wine will turn me into "one of those people" (or that my interest indicates that I already am). I caught part of Sideways on TV shortly after this trip, and it reminded me of one group of post-collegiates I observed somewhere in Sonoma County. They were led by a burly, ruddy, ball-capped fellow who nightmarishly embodied the worst aspects of the Thomas Haden Church and Paul Giamatti characters from that movie - a loud, obnoxious frat bro with an oenophile's vocabulary.

All that being said, I did gain more of an understanding of what's going on in California wine from my brief off-season tour through Sonoma. I've generally avoided CA wine in favor of France, Spain, and Italy, mostly because I've found that you can get much better value and variety for $10-20 from Europe than from California (or most other US wine regions, for that matter). I've tasted some very good California wines (particularly Russian River Pinot Noirs - Kosta Browne, Capiaux, Gary Farrell - and even some excellent vintage sparking wine), but the prices are too steep to make them a habit. While I tasted some wines that embodied the negative California wine stereotype - cloying fruit, too much in-your-face oak and/or alcohol - the best California winemakers are able to avoid these pitfalls, making fruit and oak into well-integrated virtues without trying to precisely replicate a particular European style.

I'm still partial to "old world" wines, though, and if you want to find them in California, the place to go is Kermit Lynch's shop in Berkeley. Sharing a small parking lot with Acme Bread (see Part Two), Lynch's shop screams "wine importer" as loudly as Acme does "artisan bakery". It's essentially a large room with hundreds of stacks of boxes, with the top box of each stack open to display the wines, almost all from France and Italy. My only purchase was a half bottle of Sauternes for a New Year's Eve dinner with friends (this was my first encounter with Sauternes, and I'll say that it's reputation - apparently, the founding fathers were fans - is justified, the words "nectar" and "elixir" coming to mind), but it's hard to go wrong with anything bearing Lynch's "men in a boat" label.

Notes From The West Coast, Part Two - Food

The second installment of my notes from a recent trip to the SF Bay Area and points north, in which The Selected Ballads tries his hand at food writing. The third and, mercifully, final installment will be stuff I drank.

Acme Bread - Berkeley, CA
I've been describing this place to people as looking like the photos in coffee table books about bread - everything about it is pure, archetypal artisan bakery. This location (the original?) is mostly a working bakery with only a small walk-in sales area, leading to a perpetual line out the door. I tried Acme a few times during my stay in the Bay Area, but on my first visit I was thrown off by the local convention of labeling non-sourdough breads as "sweet" (as in "sweet baguette" rather than just "baguette").

I've eaten a lot of bread in NYC, and I'd say that only Almondine and Sullivan Street are in Acme's league. Unfortunately, I didn't get to find out who else in the Bay Area is in Acme's league - maybe on my next West Coast trip.

Flour + Water - San Francisco, CA
Apparently, this place has had a lot of buzz in SF food circles over the past year, as evidenced by the crowd assembled outside the door 15 or 20 minutes before they opened for dinner. The menu is split evenly between pizza and pasta, with some ambitious appetizers and mains, but I seemed to be one of the few diners who ordered pizza. Maybe pizza as an upscale dinner option hasn't quite caught on in SF the way it has in NYC. In any case, the pizza (size and shape conforming to the lately en vogue Neapolitan style) was quite good, especially the crust, as might be expected from the restaurant's name. (Adam Kuban of Slice was not overly impressed, though he also noticed that most diners didn't seem to be there for the pies.)

What I tasted of my dining companion's pasta was also good - pastas made in-house from unusual ingredients (like beets) seem to be the focus. We also had a lamb's tongue and potato appetizer. I was initially thinking that lamb's tongue might be a green (turns out I was thinking of lamb's ear), but of course it turned out to be exactly what it said it was - the tongue of a lamb - and it was delicious.

Cafe Reyes - Point Reyes Station, CA
I had another good pizza at Cafe Reyes, near Tomales Bay, one of the major spots for oysters on the West Coast. I was slightly disappointed the cafe didn't offer the local specialty, BBQ oysters, but in the end I was happy I ate them raw. I'm not really a great oyster lover, but eating these was an intense sensory experience, tasting so strongly and purely of the ocean that they produced sense-memories of childhood beach vacations (seriously).

Returning to the pizza, I ordered it because it was clear that they took their pizza (a little too?) seriously - prominently displayed peels, wood-burning oven in full view, flour info on the menu. As with Flour + Water, the crust was the highlight, though I may have erred in ordering sausage - the overgenerous portion of crumbled topping caused severe "tip dip" and overwhelmed the sauce and cheese.

El Dorado Kitchen - Sonoma, CA
The trendy boutique hotel vibe of this restaurant was cause for trepidation, but it turned out to be a good experience, with some well thought-out food and old-fashioned good service. Cheese and charcuterie plates were the highlight, each meat and cheese successfully paired with some complimentary flavor (honey, sauerkraut, and prunes were involved, among other things) instead of just being sliced and arranged on a board.

Notes From The West Coast, Part One - Books & Music

The Selected Ballads spent some time in the Golden West during the holiday season. Here's the first batch of my notes from the trip:

1. One Fast Move

If you're planning to drive any of the more scenic stretches of California's Hwy. 1, allow me to recommend some driving music: Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard's One Fast Move Or I'm Gone. Some might consider it a bit too obvious or literal to listen to songs about the California coast while driving along it, but I'm not that sort. I've listened to the Beach Boys driving around L.A., and I'd do it again (oops). I've fallen behind with my Farrar fandom in the last few years, missing his recent NYC appearances after being underwhelmed by The Search and the last Son Volt show I saw at Irving Plaza. He's given me so much pleasure in his career, though, that I'm very glad to be able to enthusiastically endorse One Fast Move.

Like the rest of Farrar's fans, I would've never predicted that he would team up with Ben Gibbard or that the pairing would work as well as it does. Although he wrote almost all of the songs on the album (taking the words from Kerouac's Big Sur), Farrar only sings half of them, and I wonder if his voice, one of my all-time favorites, sounds better when he's contrasted with another, very different, type of singer (like Gibbard, or Jeff Tweedy). Maybe part of the ho-humness I've felt about some of Farrar's albums and live shows has come from a kind of fatigue with that voice, like having too much of a rich food all by itself.

The melodies are simple and beautiful in a way that the best Farrar songs are, and they seem to suit both singers. The experience of hearing some of Farrar's characteristic melodic moves coming out of another singer's mouth is jarring for a second before it becomes refreshing. Gibbard pulls his weight. The lyrics at times seem shoehorned into the melodies (weird scansion?) - this is a trait typical of later Farrar, but it somehow works with the Kerouac text, calling attention to words that can stand up to the scrutiny. I'm looking forward to listening to this album in a less awe-inspiring setting to see if it can give me chills on its own. I've also got the One Fast Move documentary at #1 in my Netflix queue, so maybe I'll report on that soon.

2. City Lights (plus: a ride on my bookstore hobby horse)

Speaking of Beats on the West Coast, I was glad to finally get to the famous City Lights Books. It was a blast to browse, but I'm a little ashamed to admit that I didn't buy anything. I tried to justify this to myself on the grounds of limited space in my carry-on baggage, but I ended up buying books later in the trip (see below) and squeezing them in. The truth is, I have a hard time paying list price for books in a world with the Internet and the Strand, and I continue to question the business model of shops that sell nothing but new books at full price.

I think, and hope, that City Lights will get by on the basis of its amazing selection (you're not gonna find those small run poetry chapbooks and zines on Amazon) and, of course, its reputation, but I wonder about the future of places like the lovely Three Lives in the West Village (same deal: all new, all full price, and I've rarely bought anything from them). By contrast, the almost-as-historic Moe's Books in Berkeley has a nice mix of used and new. St. Mark's Bookshop in the East Village is all new books, but it has a secret weapon: a killer sale table almost hidden away in the back of the store (the genius of the sale table is that people with sick brains like mine can convince themselves that buying one book for $10 off list and one at full price is the same as getting each of them for $5 off - a variation on "the more you buy, the more you save" - thereby justifying the purchase).

3. Treehorn Books, Santa Rosa, CA

As much as I enjoyed City Lights and Moe's, this is the kind of bookstore I really love to find - one that sells used books, has a great selection, and is located in a small or out-of-the-way town, with the type of pricing that's possible with low overhead. Here is the thrill of the hunt - you see a couple of titles you wouldn't expect, you check a few prices, and you know the game is on. My best find here was a 1st edition of Rock and the Pop Narcotic, the notorious critical screed by Joe Carducci. My traveling companion struck gold in the art & architecture section, coming away with an armful of well-illustrated suitcase busters. With this store and the Russian River Brewery (to be covered in Part Two), Santa Rosa made a strong case for itself as my future place of retirement.