‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,’ it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.’
‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master – that’s all.’
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. ‘They’ve a temper, some of them – particularly verbs: they’re the proudest – adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs – however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!’
‘Would you tell me, please,’ said Alice, ‘what that means?’
‘Now you talk like a reasonable child,’ said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. ‘I meant by “impenetrability” that we’ve had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you’d mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don’t mean to stop here all the rest of your life.’
‘That’s a great deal to make one word mean,’ Alice said in a thoughtful tone.
‘When I make a word do a lot of work like that,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘I always pay it extra.’
‘Oh!’ said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark.
‘Ah, you should see ‘em come round me of a Saturday night,’ Humpty Dumpty went on, wagging his head gravely from side to side, ‘for to get their wages, you know.’
(Alice didn’t venture to ask what he paid them with; so you see I can’t tell you.)
“You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir”, said Alice. “Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem ‘Jabberwocky’?”
“Let’s hear it”, said Humpty Dumpty. “I can explain all the poems that ever were invented–and a good many that haven’t been invented just yet.”
This sounded very hopeful, so Alice repeated the first verse:
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“That’s enough to begin with”, Humpty Dumpty interrupted: “there are plenty of hard words there. ‘Brillig‘ means four o’clock in the afternoon–the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.”
“That’ll do very well”, said Alice: “and ‘slithy‘?”
“Well, ‘slithy‘ means ‘lithe and slimy’. ‘Lithe’ is the same as ‘active’. You see it’s like a portmanteau–there are two meanings packed up into one word.”
I see it now”, Alice remarked thoughfully: “and what are ‘toves‘?”
“Well, ‘toves‘ are something like badgers–they’re something like lizards–and they’re something like corkscrews.”
“They must be very curious creatures.”
“They are that”, said Humpty Dumpty: “also they make their nests under sun-dials–also they live on cheese.”
“And what’s to ‘gyre‘ and to ‘gimble‘?”
“To ‘gyre‘ is to go round and round like a gyroscope. To ‘gimble‘ is to make holes like a gimlet.”
“And ‘the wabe‘ is the grass plot round a sun-dial, I suppose?” said Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity.
“Of course it is. It’s called ‘wabe‘, you know, because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it–”
“And a long way beyond it on each side”, Alice added.
“Exactly so. Well then, ‘mimsy‘ is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there’s another portmanteau for you). And a ‘borogove‘ is a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round–something like a live mop.”
“And then ‘mome raths‘?” said Alice. “If I’m not giving you too much trouble.”
“Well a ‘rath‘ is a sort of green pig, but ‘mome‘ I’m not certain about. I think it’s sort for ‘from home’–meaning that they’d lost their way, you know.”
“And what does ‘outgrabe‘ mean?”
“Well, ‘outgribing‘ is something between bellowing an whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle: however, you’ll hear it done, maybe–down in the wood yonder–and when you’ve once heard it, you’ll be quite content. Who’s been repeating all that hard stuff to you?”
“I read it in a book”, said Alice.
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Bandersnatch – A swift moving creature with snapping jaws, capable of extending its neck.
Beamish – Radiantly beaming, happy, cheerful.
Borogove – A thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round, “something like a live mop. The initial syllable of borogove is pronounced as in borrow, rather than as in burrow.
Brillig – Four o’clock in the afternoon: the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.
Burbled – Possibly a mixture of “bleat”, “murmur”, and “warble”. Burble is also a pre-existing word, circa 1303, meaning to form bubbles as in boiling water.
Chortled – Combination of chuckle and snort.
Frabjous – Probably a blend of fair, fabulous, and joyous.
Frumious – Combination of “fuming” and “furious”.
Galumphing – Perhaps a blend of “gallop” and “triumphant”. Used to describe a way of “trotting” down hill, while keeping one foot further back than the other. This enables the Galumpher to stop quickly.
Gimble – To make holes as does a gimlet.
Gyre – To go round and round like a gyroscope. However, Carroll also wrote in Mischmasch that it meant to scratch like a dog. The g is pronounced like the /g/ in gold, not like gem.
Jubjub – A desperate bird that lives in perpetual passion.
Manxome – Fearsome; the word is of unknown origin.
Mimsy – Combination of “miserable” and “flimsy”.
Mome – Possibly short for “from home,” meaning that the raths had lost their way.
Outgrabe (past tense; present tense outgribe) – Something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle.
Rath – A sort of green pig.
Snicker-snack: Countable and uncountable.
Slithy – Combination of “slimy” and “lithe.” The i is long, as in writhe.
Tove – A combination of a badger, a lizard, and a corkscrew. They are very curious looking creatures which make their nests under sundials and eat only cheese.[4] Pronounced so as to rhyme with groves. Note that “gyre and gimble,” i.e. rotate and bore, is in reference to the toves being partly corkscrew by Humpty Dumpty’s definitions.
Tulgey – Thick, dense, dark.
Uffish – A state of mind when the voice is gruffish, the manner roughish, and the temper huffish.
Vorpal – It is commonly assumed to mean “deadly” or “sharp”. Carroll himself once wrote, “I am afraid I can’t explain ‘vorpal blade’ for you—nor yet ‘tulgey wood.’”
Wabe – The grass plot around a sundial. It is called a “wabe” because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it, and a long way beyond it on each side.
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“The rest of the nonsense words were never explicitly defined by Carroll, who claimed that he did not know what some of them meant.”
