The Professor Was a Thief Glossary
Stories from the Golden Age reflect the words and expressions used in the 1930s and 1940s, adding unique flavor and authenticity to the tales. While a character’s speech may often reflect regional origins, it also can convey attitudes common in the day. So that readers can better grasp such cultural and historical terms, uncommon words or expressions of the era, the following glossary has been provided.
Aldrich Deep: deeps are areas of the ocean over 3,000 fathoms (18,000 feet) deep. The Aldrich Deep, located east of New Zealand and nearly the size of Australia, is one of the largest and is named after Admiral Pelham Aldrich who measured its depth in the 1800s. The Aldrich Deep has been measured at 5,155 fathoms (30,930 feet).
CA: Civil Affairs.
catalyst crystals: crystals or minerals that cause or accelerate a chemical reaction without themselves being affected.
city room: the room in which local news is handled for a newspaper, a radio station or for another journalistic agency.
crackbrain: a foolish, senseless or insane person.
cub: cub reporter; a young and rather inexperienced newspaper reporter.
“dancing school”: another name for a brothel.
dissolution of Gaul: “Pop chose to attempt the dissolution of Gaul in the manufactures of Kentucky” is a play on words, meaning that he tried to drown his bitter feelings in whiskey. The two words are Gaul and gall. Gaul was a territory in western Europe, which was dissolved (brought to an end) militarily by Julius Caesar in the first century BC and eventually became a Roman province. Gall is something bitter or distasteful; bitter feeling. The “manufactures of Kentucky” refers to whiskey produced in Kentucky.
drays: low, strong carts without fixed sides, for carrying heavy loads.
Drive: referring to Riverside Drive in New York City, which runs parallel with the Hudson River.
Dutch, in: in trouble or disfavor (with someone).
epistemology: a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods and limits of human knowledge.
goonies: stupid or foolish people.
hawser: a thick rope or cable for mooring or towing a ship.
jackanapes: somebody who behaves like an ape or monkey.
Ketch, Jack: executioner; an English executioner in the 1600s, notorious for his barbarous inefficiency because he employed either very awkward or sadistic techniques and his victims were known to have suffered at their deaths.
key-jumpy: speaking in a tone of voice characterized by nervous or jittery variations in pitch.
Lake Tanganyika: a lake in central Africa. It is the longest freshwater lake in the world.
legman: a reporter who gathers information by visiting news sources, or by being present at news events.
loon: a crazy person.
manufactures of Kentucky: whiskey made in Kentucky.
mean: unimposing or shabby.
mill: a typewriter.
morning star: a weapon consisting of a heavy ball, set with spikes and either attached to a staff or suspended from one by a chain.
Mountains of the Moon: a mountain range in central Africa, so called by the natives because of their snowcapped whiteness.
m’sieu: (French) Mr.
non-com: non-commissioned officer; an enlisted person of any of various grades in the armed forces, as from corporal to sergeant major.
obit-ed: a coined word meaning to write an obituary (a notice of a person’s death, often with a short biography, in a newspaper).
punch-drunk: befuddled; dazed.
Reds: Communists; also political radicals or revolutionaries.
Sea of Dreams: a large dark plain on the far side of the moon that was mistaken by early astronomers for a sea.
semaphores: any of various devices for signaling by changing the position of a light, flag, etc.
senicide: the killing of old men.
snipes: cigarette butts.
Spinoza: Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677); Dutch philosopher. He claimed to deduce the entire system of thought from a restricted set of definitions and self-evident axioms.
spittoon: a container for spitting into.
stick: a very short article; from an early printing term “composing stick,” a hand-held adjustable metal tray in which one set type (a raised letter or other character cast in metal) into words and phrases for printing. One stick only held about ten or twelve lines of type, and a full-page article would be composed using many sticks of type.
swallowtail: a man’s fitted coat, cut away over the hips and descending in a pair of tapering skirts behind. It is usually black and worn as part of full evening dress.
topee: a lightweight hat worn in tropical countries for protection from the sun.
wing collar: a shirt collar, used especially in men’s formal clothing, in which the front edges are folded down in such a way as to resemble a pair of wings.
