a good thing could come out of Nazareth John 1:46.
a stranger in a strange land in Exodus 2:22, Moses in Egypt refers to himself as a stranger in a strange land.
Aeschylean phrase "President of the Immortals" translates a phrase from Prometheus Bound (1.169), by Aeschylus; Hardy finishes the novel by suggesting that the highest power in the universe uses human beings for "sport."
Aholah and Aholibah two sisters who were prostitutes: Ezekiel predicts that not only they but their children will be punished (Ezekiel 23).
Aldebaran or Sirius two of the brightest stars in the sky.
almanack (dialect) almanac.
And she shall follow after her lover . . . from Hosea 2:7.
Antinomian a believer in the Christian doctrine that faith alone, not obedience to the moral law, is necessary for salvation.
antiquity the quality of being ancient or old.
Apostolic Charity Charity as described by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:4–7.
apostrophizing addressing words to a person or thing, whether absent or present, generally in an exclamatory digression in a speech or literary writing.
apple-booth apple blossom.
Artemis, Demeter goddesses associated with chastity, but the former also connected with hunting and both understood in the early anthropology of Hardy's time as fertility goddesses.
Article Four the fourth of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England asserts the literal resurrection of Christ from the dead.
as Hamlet puts it from Hamlet 2.2.351.
Atalanta's race Atalanta was a Grecian huntress who refused to marry any suitor who could not outrun her; the penalty for those who lost was death.
autochthonous characteristic of any of the earliest known inhabitants of a place.
Babylon ancient city noted for wealth, luxury, and wickedness.
Bachelor-apostle St. Paul; Alec is echoing Luke 9:62.
baily in England, a steward or manager of a farm or estate.
Ballyragging bullying, intimidating, or browbeating.
banns the proclamation, generally made in church on three successive Sundays, of an intended marriage.
barton barnyard.
beatific making blissful or blessed.
Being reviled we bless… 1 Corinthians 4:12–13.
bizarrerie something strange, weird, singular, odd (French).
black-puddings dark sausages made with meat and seasoned blood.
cadaverous of or like a cadaver; esp., pale, ghastly, or gaunt and haggard.
Calvinistic doctrine reference to the teachings of John Calvin (1509–1564), Swiss Protestant theologian, who emphasized salvation through God's grace.
capricious subject to caprices; tending to change abruptly and without apparent reason; erratic; flighty.
carking [Archaic] worrying or being worried or anxious.
Caroline date the seventeenth century, during the reign of Charles I (reigned 1625–49) or Charles II (reigned 1660–85).
Centurions the commanding officers of an ancient Roman century.
Cerealia celebration in honor of Ceres, Roman goddess of the harvest.
Champaigns plains; level open country.
Chapels-of-Ease chapels for parishioners who lived far from the church.
clipsed or colled (dialect) embraced.
clipsing and colling hugging (dialect).
Clogged like a dripping pan reference to a pan, used for roasting, in which the drippings of fat have been allowed to congeal.
Conjecturally being inferred, theorized, or predicted from incomplete or uncertain evidence.
contravene to go against; oppose; conflict with; violate; to disagree with in argument; contradict.
convenances social conventions (from French).
copy-holders people who hold land by copyhold.
copyholders persons who hold land by copyhold; here, possessors of the land at the will of the lord of the manor, who, by custom, normally allowed tenants to stay for longer than the life of the original tenant.
Cornelia wife of Scipio Africanus the Younger (second cen. B.C.), who devoted herself to raising her twelve children and refused offers of marriage after she was widowed (Enc. Britannica, 7:167).
cowcumber (dialect) cucumber.
Crivelli's dead Christus probably the Pietà by the fifteenth-century Italian painter, Carlo Crivelli (c. 1430–1495), in the National Gallery in London.
crumby an attractive girl.
Cubit's Cupid's.
cumbrous cumbersome.
Cybele the Many-breasted Phrygian fertility goddess who, in the form of a mother with many breasts, symbolizes nature.
Cyprian image the goddess of love in an ancient world, Venus and Aphrodite, was associated with Cyprus, but the legend mentioned has not been convincingly identified.
