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vedi Napoli e poi mori vay-dee NAW-po-lee aa po-ee MO-ree phrase see Naples and then die 1908Joseph ConradIl CondeThere is a saying of Neapolitan patriotism, intended for the information of foreigners, I presume: 'See Naples and then die.' Vedi Napoli e poi mori. It is a saying of excessive vanity, and everything excessive was abhorrent to the nice moderation of the poor Count.1908Robert HichensA Spirit in PrisonHer imagination was almost furiously alive, and as the Padrone talked, waving his hands and striking postures like those of a military dictator, she saw the dead Empress, with her fan before her face, nodding her head to the jig of 'Funiculi, funicula,' while she watched the red cloud from Vesuvius rising into the starry sky; she saw Sarah Bernhardt taking the Greek cat upon her knee; the newly made Czar reading the telegram with his glass of punch beside him; Tosti tracing lines of music; Gladstone watching the sea; and finally the gaunt figure and the long beard of Tolstoy bending over the book in which he wrote clearly so many years ago, 'Vedi Napoli e poi mori.'Labels: Joseph Conrad, Robert Hichens
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extirpate EK-stur-payt verb to exterminate; utter destruction; to pull up by the roots 1911Joseph ConradUnder Western Eyes'We, of course, talked to him. And do you know what he said to me? 'What have we to do with Balkan intrigues? We must simply extirpate the scoundrels.' Extirpate is all very well—but what then? The imbecile! I screamed at him, 'But you must spiritualize—don't you understand?—spiritualize the discontent.'1917Woodrow WilsonWhy We are at WarEven in checking these things and trying to extirpate them we have sought to put the most generous interpretation possible upon them because we knew that their source lay, not in any hostile feeling or purpose of the German people toward us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant of them as we ourselves were), but only in the selfish designs of a Government that did what it pleased and told its people nothing.1987Bernard Cornwell Sharpe's SiegeThe Thuella existed, her crew had made themselves a fortress on land, and it would take two days to extirpate that nest of pirates.Labels: Bernard Cornwell, Joseph Conrad, Woodrow Wilson
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comity KAW-mi-tee noun social harmony; comity of nations: recognition and respect between nations for each other's laws 1904Joseph ConradNostromoDon Jose Avellanos desired passionately for his country: peace, prosperity, and (as the end of the preface to 'Fifty Years of Misrule' has it) 'an honourable place in the comity of civilized nations.'1907Meredith NicholsonThe Port of Missing MenArmitage was not listening. Questions of international law and comity had no interest for him whatever.1917Woodrow WilsonWhy We are at WarWith a right comity of arrangement no nation need be shut away from free access to the open paths of the world's commerce.Labels: Joseph Conrad, Meredith Nicholson, Woodrow Wilson
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vestige VES-tij noun tangible evidence left by something; a smidgen of something; the remainder of something 1902Joseph ConradEnd of the TetherHe had long since parted with the last vestige of incredulity; of the original emotions, set into a tumult by the discovery, some trace of the first awe alone remained.1912Edgar Rice BurroughsTarzan of the ApesIn the middle of the floor lay a skeleton, every vestige of flesh gone from the bones to which still clung the mildewed and moldered remnants of what had once been clothing.1925F. Scott FitzgeraldThe Great GatsbyThey were sitting at either end of the couch, looking at each other as if some question had been asked, or was in the air, and every vestige of embarrassment was gone.1936Margaret MitchellGone With the WindHe went on speaking and there was a quality in his voice, a sadness, a resignation, that increased her fear until every vestige of anger and disappointment was blotted out.Labels: Edgar Rice Burroughs, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joseph Conrad, Margaret Mitchell
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boulevardier boo-luh-vaw-deer noun a wealthy man; a popular socialite 1904Joseph Conrad Nostromo As a matter of fact, he was an idle boulevardier, in touch with some smart journalists, made free of a few newspaper offices, and welcomed in the pleasure haunts of pressmen. 1922P. G. Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves ...the Bertram Wooster who eventually toppled off at the door of Kingham Manor was a very different Bertram from the gay and insouciant boulevardier of Bond Street and Piccadilly.1970Kurt Vonnegut Jailbird Clyde's and Fender's faces, however, were mirrors enough to tell me that I was something less than a gay boulevardier on the order of, say, the late Maurice Chevalier.Labels: Joseph Conrad, Kurt Vonnegut, P. G. Wodehouse
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abaft a-BAFT adverb towards the stern of the ship 1903Joseph ConradFalkOn these days you could make out that ship at a great distance by the multi-coloured grotesque riot going on abaft her mizzen mast.1939Robert A. HeinleinMisfitHis mate read the exterior dials of the stereoscope. 'Plus point two, abaft one point three, slight drift astern.' He shifted to radar and added, 'Range seven nine oh four three.'1943Curt Siodmak and Ardel WrayI Walked With a ZombieEXT. DECK OF SCHOONER - NIGHT Betsy is seated on the cabin top just abaft of the foremast. She is looking out toward the sea and her expression is ecstatic. She is completely lost in the beauty that she feels, sees and smells.1979Frederick ForsythThe Devil's AlternativeThe ship was heading east-northeast to clear Cape Ince, so that as he shielded his eyes and gazed abaft the beam, the noon sun was almost straight in his face.1998Patrick O'BrianThe Hundred DaysThe breeze is veering again, said the first. It will be abaft the beam directly.Labels: Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray, Frederick Forsyth, Joseph Conrad, Patrick O'Brian, Robert A. Heinlein
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