Listed below are words that were used in the
Jabberwocky poem, as they were described as one of the characters in Lewis carrols' book:
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 worry.
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. The dutch word broebelen still remains this meaning of bubbling boiling water.
Chortled — Combination of chuckle and snort.
Frabjous — Possibly 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.
[5][10] 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, according to the Butcher in Carroll's later poem
The Hunting of the Snark.
Manxome — Fearsome. A portmanteau of "manly" and "buxom", the latter relating to men for most of its history.
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 — An
onomatopoeia of unclear meaning, possibly referring to sharpness.
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. 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.
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.
