Bandersnatch – A swift moving creature with snapping jaws, capable of extending its neck.[3]
Borogove – A thin shabby-looking bird with its featheres sticking out all round, "something like a live mop".[4] The initial syllable of borogove is pronounced as in borrow, rather than as in burrow.[5].
Brillig – Four o'clock in the afternoon: the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.[4][6]
Burbled – Possibly a mixture of "bleat", "murmur", and "warble".[7] Burble is also pre-existing word, circa 1303, meaning to form bubbles as in boiling water.
Chortled - Combination of chuckle and snort.[4]
Frabjous - Probably a blend of fair, fabulous, and joyous .[8]
Frumious – Combination of "fuming" and "furious."[5]
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.[8]
Gimble – To make holes as does a gimlet.[4]
Gyre – To go round and round like a gyroscope.[4][9] 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.[10].
Jubjub – A desperate bird that lives in perpetual passion.[3]
Manxome – Fearsome; the word is of unknown origin. [8]
Mimsy – Combination of "miserable" and "flimsy".[4]
Mome – Possibly short for "from home," meaning that the raths had lost their way.[4]
Outgrabe (past tense; present tense outgribe) – Something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle.[4][11]
Rath – A sort of green pig.[4] (See Origin and structure for further details.)
Slithy – Combination of "slimy" and "lithe."[4] The i is long, as in writhe.[5]
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.[5] 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.[7]
Vorpal - See vorpal sword.
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.[4]
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There are many strange words in this poem. After understanding whta these words mean, it is a little easier to understand what it is all about.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am still slightly confused what teh nig picture is. It seems to me that this poem does not have a real menaing. It is just words that are basically jumbled together.
I am not a child, and it was still confusing to read it. It seems to me, that British children are more educated ebacsue this poem is in a children's book. I cannot imagine giving this poem to an American child in the 21st century, and expecting him/her to understand what it means.
I actually think this poem is brilliant - when I read it aloud, I didn't stumble over the words, the poem had a discernible rhythm and rhyme, and I understood what was going on. I didn't need to know the meaning of each word for the poem to make sense, which was surprising and enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI must both agree and disagree with Krishna. Firstly, the poem did have a good rhythm and rhyme for me on the second read around once I had read through the foreign words the first time around. Secondly, the poem did make some sense to me, however, there was a lot missing from me in which the nuisances of the overall meaning seemed to escape me. It's a poem that you could follow through all its nonsense, but you must find time to discard that nonsense and find the meat of it, and if you happen to know the meaning of the words...congratulations, grab a pat on the back, and maybe a cup 'o tea.
ReplyDeleteTo me, jabberwockey is a poem that has no meaning and perhaps it is not supposed to. It sounds like it should make sense because its construction is such that the syntax is in order, but the actual content has no meaning. I believe this could be Carroll's commentary on the conventions either on growing up, or in his society. The syntactical structure represents rules or accepted norms that people follow, but the words are meaningless like the reasons for these conventions which tend to be silly and hollow.
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting poem to say the least; I feel it is a nonsensical reduction of a typical knight’s tale which is built on bravery and adventure. Part of the non sense starts with the fact that the poem clearly mentions a male slaying the Jabberwocky, but the picture depicts a female, which I take to be Alice – I love the pose though, so childish and innocent almost making her seem like she will tip over from waving that big metal around. I have to disagree with some of the other commentators, I believe the poem does have meaning starting with the fact that Carroll deliberately put it there, this will not the first time he has tried to put things right before our eyes that we do not immediately recognize. It has meaning in the sense that we can see the narrator is someone with some speech difficult, a childish difficulty. The narrator is obviously a child, children are known to ramble on and on incoherently – at least to the adult ears – but to them they know exactly what they are trying to get across even if it comes out miss formed in words such as “uffish” and “jabberwocky”. For those who do not understand parts of this poem I suggest they give it to a child who is still learning to speak or form word, I bet you he/she will relay the meaning in great detail. That of course also require that you understand what the child has to say, or you can simply look at ahead in the book and hear what Humpty Dumpty has to say about the poem.
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