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metteur en scène me-toor awn sen noun the director of a movie or of a stage play 1957From Russia with LoveHe had been directly behind the mass executions of the 1930s when a million died, he had been metteur en scène of most of the great Moscow show trials, he had organized the bloody genocide in the Central Caucasus in February 1944…Labels: Ian Fleming
soporific sawp-uh-RI-fik adjective, noun sleep inducing; a drug that causes sleep or dulls the senses 1850The Man in the Iron MaskOutside, the guards of honor and the patrols of the musketeers paced up and down; and the sound of their feet could be heard on the gravel walks. It was an additional soporific for the sleepers; while the murmuring of the wind through the trees and the unceasing music of the fountains still went on uninterruptedly, without being disturbed at the slight noises and trifling affairs of which the life and death of man consist.1914Bambi'It's mutual, I may say,' and he fell into step. 'Bless this old town, it's like——' | 'A soporific,' she supplied, and joined his laugh.1961Thunderball...he knew that in minutes the strong soporific would put Bond out for hours.1970One Hundred Years of SolitudeRemedios in the soporific air of two in the afternoon, Remedios in the soft breath of the roses, Remedios in the water-clock secrets of the moths, Remedios in the steaming morning bread, Remedios everywhere and Remedios forever.Labels: Alexandre Dumas, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ian Fleming, Marjorie Benton Cooke
summum bonum SOOM-uhm BO-nuhm noun the greatest good; the supreme good 1651LeviathanFor there is no such finis ultimus (utmost aim) nor summum bonum (greatest good) as is spoken of in the books of the old moral philosophers.1861UtilitarianismFrom the dawn of philosophy, the question concerning the summum bonum, or, what is the same thing, concerning the foundation of morality, has been accounted the main problem in speculative thought, has occupied the most gifted intellects, and divided them into sects and schools, carrying on a vigorous warfare against one another.1964You Only Live Twice...the 'quick buck', often dishonestly earned, or earned in exchange for minimal labour or skills, are the summum bonum, if you will allow the sentimental echo from my Oxford education.'1978ChesapeakeTo him, England was a respected family memory; he had been educated there, but it was not the summum bonum.Labels: Ian Fleming, James A. Michener, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Hobbes
obstreperous AWB-STRE-puh-ruhs adjective to be unruly; to be aggressively rude 1917Who Can Be Happy and Free In Russia?God's curse, the Tsar's anger, | He hurls at the heads | Of obstreperous peasants.1961ThunderballHe was a ruthless, vengeful man and he had eliminated many obstreperous and perhaps dangerous people in his life.1988ZodiacBoone is standing six feet away, a rock, talking calmly and quietly like a nursery school teacher handling an obstreperous child.Labels: Ian Fleming, Neal Stephenson, Nicholas Nekrassov
oubliette oo-blee-ET noun a dungeon, room, or storage space with only a trap door or gap in its ceiling as a point of entry or exit 1953Casino RoyaleLe Chiffre's two cards followed them with a faint rattle which comes from the canister at the beginning of each session before the discards have made a cushion over the metal floor of their oubliette.2001The Cassandra CompactUnder the floorboards in the main room, in a small oubliette, was a cache of arms, medicines, and other essentials, indicating that the owner was undoubtedly in Howell's line of work.2002Fear and TremblingI probed my brain in search of a layer favorable to amnesia. Were there any oubliette cells in my neuronal fortress?Labels: Amélie Nothomb, Ian Fleming, Robert Ludlum
remonstrance ri-MAWN-struhns noun a protest; a complaint; a grievance 1861The Gorilla Hunters'O Peterkin,' said I, in a tone of remonstrance, 'how could you be so unkind as to waken me when I had just got to sleep? Shabby fellow!' 1906The Far HorizonAll day thunder had threatened, but had not broken. And, even yet, the face of heaven seemed less peaceful than remonstrant, a sullenness holding it as of troops in retreat denied satisfaction of imminent battle.1954The Lord of the Rings: The Two TowersThey heard the gentle remonstrance of a kindly king with an erring but much-loved minister.1966Quantum of SolaceOf course Masters himself, as he was to tell me later, went through the usual dreary sequence—remonstrance, bitter quarrel, furious rage, violence (he told me he damned nearly throttled her one night) and, finally, icy withdrawal and sullen misery.Labels: Ian Fleming, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lucas Malet, R. M. Ballantyne
gimcrack JIM-krak noun, adjective a flashy object of little or no value; a flashy object with no practical use 1868The Huge HunterNo, I see how it works; them 'ere thingumbobs and gimcracks do it all.'1922Ulysses...she broke off the hand off that little gimcrack statue with her roughness…1954The Doors of PerceptionThis suffocating interior of a dime-store ship was my own personal self; these gimcrack mobiles of tin and plastic were my personal contributions to the universe.1962The Spy Who Loved Me...I was very happy to be back in it after my brief taste of the rackety round of Chelsea pubs and gimcrack journalism…Labels: Aldous Huxley, Edward S. Ellis, Ian Fleming, James Joyce
abstemious ab-STEM-ee-uhs adjective consumed sparingly; used conservatively; temperate 1862The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus AureliusWhen he was eleven years old he assumed the dress of philosophers, something plain and coarse, became a hard student, and lived a most laborious, abstemious life, even so far as to injure his health.1886Long OddsHe had eaten his dinner and drunk two or three glasses of old port, just to help Good and myself to the end of the second bottle. It was an unusual thing for him to do, for he was a most abstemious man, having conceived, as he used to say, a great horror of drink from observing its effects upon the class of colonists—hunters, transport riders and others—amongst whom he had passed so many years of his life.1961ThunderballI recommend that No. 007 should take it easy for two to three weeks on a more abstemious regime, when I believe he would make a complete return to his previous exceptionally high state of physical fitness.Labels: H. Rider Haggard, Ian Fleming, Marcus Aurelius
Kinder, Kirche, Küche KIN-duh KIR-chuh Kyoo-chuh noun German folk saying that suggests the three pillars of a woman's life should be children, church, and the kitchen; a motto adopted by 20th Century German Nazis; literally: children, church, kitchen 1962The Spy Who Loved MeShe was the daughter of a Heidelberg professor of philosophy, and the placid eyes that stared out of the snapshots he showed me, and the gleaming braided hair and trim dirndl, were a living advertisement for 'Kinder, Kirche, Küche.'1998Feminism, Film, Fascism...they demonstrate in diverse ways how the triad of Kinder, Kirche, Küche is politically inflected and enmeshed with the process of understanding the Nazi pastLabels: Ian Fleming, Susan E. Linville
peine forte et dure pen for tay dyoor phrase strong and painful punishment; torture 1735Lives of the Most Remarkable CriminalsBurnworth absolutely refused to plead at all; upon which, after being advised by the judge not to force the Court upon that rigour which they were unwilling at any time to practice, and he still continuing obstinate, his thumbs (as is usual in such cases) were tied and strained with pack thread. This having no effect upon him, the sentence of the press, or as it is sailed in Law, of the Peine Fort et Dure, was read to him in these words: You shall go to the place from whence you came, and there being stripped naked and laid flat upon your back on the floor, with a napkin about your middle to hide your privy members, and a cloth on your face, then the press is to be laid upon you, with as much weight as, or rather more than you can bear.1859It Is Never Too Late to MendThe governor put him on a favorite crank of his, and gave him eight thousand turns to do in four hours and a half. He knew the boy could not do it, and this was only a formula he went through previous to pillorying the lad. Josephs had been in the Pillory about an hour when it so happened that the Reverend John Jones, the chaplain of the jail, came into the yard. Seeing a group of warders at the mouth of the labor-cell, he walked up to them, and there was Josephs in peine forte et dure.1958Dr. NoThe Grand Inquisitor sat in the high-backed chair. The hour had struck for the peine forte et dure.Labels: Arthur L. Hayward, Charles Reade, Ian Fleming
tête-à-tête tet-uh-TET adjective, adverb a person-to-person conversation; a one-on-one discussion 1908The Great SecretWe walked and sat together, played shuffleboard, and in every way made the most of all those delightful opportunities of tête-à-têtes which a sea voyage affords.1962The Spy Who Loved Me...it would have been a five-hour tête-à-tête…1997The Bone CollectorHe was now regretting the decision to postpone his tête-à-tête with the death doctor.Labels: E. Phillips Oppenheim, Ian Fleming, Jeffery Deaver
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