Key terms & definitions

Money awarded in a civil case to compensate a successful claimant for harm or loss.

A small school run by a woman, usually in her own home, providing elementary instruction and sometimes household training.

A conventional character who is endangered and needs rescuing. Mary partly occupies this role, although her courage and practical judgement complicate it.

Giving, including gifts of money, food and other help to those in need.

A card used at a formal ball to list dances and record the partners arranged for them.

An endurance contest in which participants danced or walked to music for an extended period.

Literally a rod or staff; in Hindu teachings about government, the authority to punish wrongdoing and maintain order, as well as punishment itself.

A person who dresses with unusually elaborate attention to fashion and appearance.

Tribute paid to Viking attackers in the hope of persuading them to stop attacking.

The area of northern and eastern England where Scandinavian settlement and rule established Danish legal customs.

The temperature range between 5 °C and 63 °C in which food-poisoning bacteria can multiply, with many multiplying particularly rapidly around 37 °C.

‘Dance of Death’ imagery in art and literature, reflecting concern with death and human mortality.

An urban work unit that organised employment and access to services such as housing, while also monitoring political behaviour.

The German Workers’ Party, a small right-wing political party led by Anton Drexler that Hitler joined in September 1919.

The narrow sea passage connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara, on the route towards Constantinople and the Black Sea.

A Scottish attempt to establish an overseas trading colony at Darien, on the Isthmus of Panama. Its failure caused deaths, heavy financial losses and resentment against England.

A character who can be read as expressing another character’s hidden or suppressed feelings. Bertha can be interpreted as a dark double of Jane.

The Jewish principle of the ‘ways of peace’, supporting good relations with non-Jewish neighbours, including helping their poor and visiting their sick.

The name given to an unknown cause proposed to explain why the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

Crimes that are not reported or recorded and therefore do not appear in official crime statistics.

Crime that occurs but does not appear in official statistics because it is not reported, detected or recorded.

Matter that does not emit light but is inferred from its gravitational effects; its nature is not yet known.

A room with controlled lighting used to develop photographic film and prints using chemicals.

Harmful aspects of family relationships, including abuse, violence and unequal power, which challenge the idea that families are always safe and supportive.

Seeing a deity through its sacred image, or seeing a holy person, as a religious encounter through which a worshipper may receive a blessing.

A stitched fold that tapers to a point, taking in excess fabric to create a three-dimensional shape.

A collection of writings traditionally associated with Guru Gobind Singh.

A drawing convention in which an ordinary line represents a bond in the plane of the page, a solid wedge points towards the viewer and a dashed wedge points away.

The Sikh practice of giving one tenth of one's earnings to support others and community purposes.

Giving one tenth of one's earnings for religious and charitable purposes.