Paff

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  • 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.


  • piffle: piff-poof, poff, piffle, and similar colloquial expressions are used in a derogatory sense to express contempt for nonsense