Лучшее из «Саги о Форсайтах» / The Best of The Forsyte Saga. Джон Голсуорси

Women’s Property Act – from 1882 it granted married women the right to control their own property.

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      to have gone to the dogs – to go to the dogs = to be broke, to go to hell.

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      underwriter – a member of insurance union.

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      bombazine – fabric made of silk and wool.

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      vieux jeu – out of date (French).

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      cut-away coat – a coat whith its skirts cut off in the front.

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      William Morris (1834–1896) – a textile designer, artist and socialist, representative of the so-called Pre-Raphaelite group.

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      Marlborough days – the annual street festival held on the Saturday before Mother’s Day.

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      put her oar in – an idiom, meaning “giving one’s opinion, even unasked for”.

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      be behind-hand – in debt.

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      daverdy – dialectal for “dowdy”: unkept, faded.

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      ‘La Donna mobile’ – from Guiseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto”.

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      the Indian Civil – Indian Civil Service, administrative elite, composed of officers recruited by competitive examination (Government of India Act of 1858).

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      swing a cat – an idiom “no room to swing a cat” means an awkwardly small space. They assume that “a cat” here is a whip used to punish sailors.

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      ‘R.S.V.P.’ — Répondez s’il vous plaît. – Answer please (if you would come). (French).

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      opoponax – sweet myrrh.

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      welshed – to welsh = to cheat, not to pay the debt.

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      Taglioni – Marie Taglioni (1804–1884) was a prominent Italian ballet dancer.

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      pooty – pretty.

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      long-headed – shrewd, wise.

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      ‘Down-by-the-starn’ – undertaker’s, funeral office.

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      to buttonhole – to detain in conversation.

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      in toto – completely, entirely (Latin).

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      sociable – an open four-wheeled carriage with two double seats facing each other.

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      Victoria – an elegant French carriage (a phaeton) that had one forward-facing seat for two passengers.

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      brougham – a carriage, had an enclosed body with two doors and it sat two.

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      dawgs – slang, meaning “men,” “buddies,” “dudes” etc.

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      knicknack – a dainty little trinket or ornament.

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      Bart. – a traditional abbreviation from baronet, the holder of hereditary title.

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      infra dig – from infra dignitatem (Latin) – humiliating.

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      wallflowers – girls without partners to a dance.

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      when the shoe pinched – from the proverb “Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches,” meaning “it’s hard to know how much someone else is suffering”.

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      Baedeker – German publishing house, pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides.