"avec des choses inouies"
French for "with extraordinary things"
creosote
a possible reference to wood creosote, a yellowish liquid used as a disinfectant
discomfited
disconcerted
fronds
the leaves of cycads, palms, or similarly shaped plants
Gare St. Lazare
one of the principal train stations of Paris (along with Gare d'Austerlitz, Gare du Nord, Gare de l'Est, and Gare Montparnasse)
Gauguin
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), a French painter of the Post-Impressionist school
gizzard
an organ in the digestive tract of birds, earthworms, reptiles, and certain fish
Le Havre
an important port city in Brittany, in the northwest of France on the Atlantic coast
Mallarme
Stephane Mallarme (1842-1898), a French poet
Montparnasse
a neighborhood of Paris, today dominated by business, but in Miller's time swamped with expats, artists, intellectuals, and bohemians
omphalos
Greek for "navel"
paddock
a fenced area, usually used to graze horses
pneumatique
French for "tire" or "tyre"
Rabelais
Francois Rabelais (1494-1553), a French writer considered one of the founders of the novel and renowned for his bawdy humor
Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), a French poet and part of the so-called decadent movement
Rodin
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), a French sculptor
Sargasso Sea
a region of the North Atlantic Ocean bordered on the west by the Gulf Stream
Strindberg
August Strindberg (1849-1912), a Swedish playwright and one of the fathers of the modern theater
suppository
a system for delivering drugs through the urethra, the vagina, or the rectum
syphilis
a venereal disease quite common in the 1930s
the clap
slang for gonorrhea
trollop
a vulgar woman, or a woman of disrepute
Villa Borghese
Miller's home at the outset of the novel, and a likely reference to the Villa Seurat in Paris, where Miller did indeed live for some time
