When Bloom recalls his days as a traveling salesman, he pictures young women at house doors "shyly acknowledging (but the heart? tell me!) his studied baisemoins." Baisemain, literally "kiss (the) hand," is an archaic French word first coined for the respectful kiss that a feudal vassal would bestow on the hand of his liege lord. Later it was applied to chivalrous male attentions to women. Joyce's version of the word, which has an "s" at the end, looks at first glance like a plural implying that young Bloom performed his "studied" display of admiration more than once. But the reality is far stranger than that. Replacing "a" with "o" produces the word moins ("less"), so that the compound means not "kiss hand" but "kiss less." The change implies mockery of Bloom.

Slote, Mamigonian, and Turner note that Joyce "consistently spelt this word 'baisemoins' across several drafts. On a page proof, he wrote a note in the margin to the typesetter to insist on this spelling." There is only a tiny difference in pronuncation between the two words––a "w" sound before the vowel––and someone with no French might easily mistake one for the other. But Joyce's French was excellent. He must have known that baisemain referred to kissing hands, and that by substituting baisemoins he was introducing the very dissimilar notion of kissing less. Why?

Probably he wanted to mock Bloom's self-image as a suave young lady-killer. At a minimum, the changed word suggests that this oleaginous young salesman's extravagant hand-kissing attentions to comely young women did not win him any actual kisses. But the taunting probably goes further than that. In a personal communication, Ole Bønnerup points out that "at some point in the 20th century, baiser started down a different road than when it meant a cavalier's gallant kiss on the hand of a lady. It became more carnal, more tongue-driven, and eventually penis-driven. In other words, baise moins now suggests 'fuck less' rather than 'kiss less'." Bloom may have made sales at some of these Dublin doorsteps, but he certainly wasn't getting laid.

Read More