Among the memorable characters in this epic enterprise are the power-hungry Kenneth Widmerpool, whose beginnings are inauspicious, but who eventually achieves formidable influence through a series of ruthless manoeuvres, and Sir Magnus Donners, at whose mansion World War II is fanfared with a charade of the seven deadly sins.

Nurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested.

Tepetate is a vernacular Mexican term referring to a hardened land with various degrees of infertility. Tepetates are derived from volcanic material, mainly tuff. The scientific definition reserves the term tepetate for a hardened layer in soils formed from pyroclastic materials. In the Central Valley of Mexico these indurate layers are among the most striking geological features.

In the leather industry skive has another connotation, concerning splitting the skin perpendicularly to its thickness into thin layers. Imagine now being able to skive at the nanoscale.