Paff
From FinnegansWiki
Jump to navigationJump to search- paffen: (German) to smoke; to puff on (a pipe, for example)
- Paff → a variation on the onomatopoeic Tip which recurs throughout the book, meaning variously in different contexts a request for a cash tip as a reward for a tour through the museum (Kathe), an auctorial injunction that we remember the omnipresence of the protagonist HCE (tip → Latin ipse, "himself"), the tap of a branch against the window, the rubbish tip or kitchen midden in the backyard of HCE's tavern, etc.
- tauf → an iteration of the tauftauf interjection which recurs throughout the book → from German taufen, to baptise → compare this section with FW 003.09-10: "nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick"
- piffle: piff-poof, poff, piffle, and similar colloquial expressions are used in a derogatory sense to express contempt for nonsense