Sanfacion |
The capitol of Nuevo Rico in The Broken Ear |
sans façon: without manners, rough and ready (Tintin, The Complete Companion) |
Omar Ben Salaad |
The Crab with the Golden Claws |
salad |
Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine |
The Secret of the Unicorn |
saccharin: a synthetic sweetener, in dilute solution 500 times sweeter than sugar saccharine: adj., of the nature of or resembling that of sugar, overly sweet, cloyingly agreeable or ingratiating |
Sophocles Sarcophagus |
Cigars of the Pharaoh |
sarcophagus: a stone coffin, especially one bearing an inscription |
Sethru-Jamjah |
The train Tintin escapes on in Cigars of the Pharaoh runs from Sethru to Jamjah |
see-through jam jar Bonus trivia question: Who is the old woman? |
Aristides Silk |
Pickpocket in The Secret of the Unicorn |
Aristides: (Aristides the Just) 530? - 486? BC; Athenian statesman and general. silk: a smooth, lustrous fiber from the cocoon of the silkworm, |
Mr. and Mrs. Snowball |
Cigars of the Pharaoh |
snowball: a ball of snow, as for throwing |
Spalding |
Flight 714: |
Flight 714: in order to effect his devious plans, a criminal named Spalding works as the unsuspecting Laszlo Carreidas’ assistant Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story “The Red-Headed League”: |
Sznôrr |
The Calculus Affair |
snore: the noise made by some while sleeping A hotel in Szohôd, Borduria. In frame 13 of page 49, the name on the sign is spelled Zsnôrr. |
General Tapioca |
Tintin and the Picaros and |
tapioca: food substance prepared from cassava, in granular, flake, pellet or flour form, used in puddings as a thickener, etc. |
Professor Hercules Tarragon |
The Seven Crystal Balls, |
tarragon: an herb Hercules: in classical mythology, Hercules was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and had great strength. |
Tel El Esdi |
Land of Black Gold |
Tel LSD Thompson and Thomson see a hallucination of this city while driving through the desert. tel (or tell): an artificial mound consisting of the accumulated remains of one or more ancient settlements, often used in Egypt and the Middle East as part of a place name LSD: lysergic acid diethylamide, a powerful psychedelic drug that produces temporary hallucinations |
Professor Alfredo Topolino |
The Calculus Affair |
topolino: Italian for “little mouse” Italians call the Fiat Cinquecento (Fiat 500 or city car) the Topolino Topolino is also the Italian name for Mickey Mouse |
A. Torticolli |
The Calculus Affair |
Torticolli, torticollis, and cervical dystonia are all names for a medical condition in which the neck muscles contract involuntarily in various combinations. A. Torticolli is the name on an ice-cream truck parked outside Marlinspike along with a crowd of rubberneckers (gawkers, sightseers). Page 15. |
Rodrigo Tortilla |
The Broken Ear |
tortilla: in Mexican cooking, a thin, flat cake of cornmeal or flour; |
Wadesdah |
Land of Black Gold, The Red Sea Sharks |
what is there? what is that? |
Jolyon Wagg |
Several Tintin Adventures |
wag: to move about rapidly as in a dog wagging its tail. Presumably refers to Wagg’s tongue. In The Calculus Affair, Wagg says “That’ll give us a chance to have another chinwag together.” |
Igor Wagner |
The Castafiore Emerald |
Signora Castafiore’s accompanist; Richard Wagner, German composer; also, Wagner is a character in Gounod’s opera Faust |
Christopher Willoughby- Drupe |
The Castafiore Emerald and others. |
drupe: a fruit with a skin, a pulp and a hard seed, such as a peach, a plum, or a nectarine |
Wizskitotz |
King Ottokar’s Sceptre |
whisky tot |
Wolff |
Destination Moon, Explorers on the Moon |
wolf: a large carnivore of the dog family, Canis lupus, a favorite villain in folk tales and sayings, as in |
Zloty |
Cigars of the Pharaoh |
zloty: a nickel coin and monetary unit of Poland, equal to 100 groszy |