h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I once heard that many of the nonsense terms in Jabberwocky were derived by amalgamating two existing words. I'm not sure I can remember exactly which words apply to each (maybe there's a website somewhere) but it's interesting trying to spot them.

Slithy is possibly lithe + slimy, for example

Humpty Dumpty specifically said that slithy was from lithe and slimy, but that was his opinion, not necessarily Lewis Carroll's.

I hope you're right about him - you don't want egg on your face.

He also said that "chortle" which has since entered the language, was from "chuckle" and "snort".

Others in the dictionary:

galumph "to prance about in a self-satisfied manner": gallop and triumph.

frumious: fuming and furious.

Carroll even coined the word "portmanteau" to describe these words (it says here).

Some more from the OED:

bandersnatch ("A fleet, furious, fuming, fabulous creature, of dangerous propensities, immune to bribery and too fast to flee from; later, used vaguely to suggest any creature with such qualities.")

burble (a. To speak murmurously; to ‘ramble’ on. b. trans. To say (something) murmurously or in a rambling manner.)

frabjous (app. intended to suggest ‘fair’ and ‘joyous’);

frumious ("A factitious word ... subsequently explained by him as a blend of fuming and furious")

jubjub ("An imaginary bird of a ferocious, desperate and occasionally charitable nature, noted for its excellence when cooked");

manxome (perhaps fearsome, monstrous);

mimsy (Blend of miserable and flimsy) Unhappy;

outgrabe ("to emit a strange noise");

rath (according to Carroll "a species of land turtle. Head erect: mouth like a shark: the fore legs curved out so that the animal walked on its knees: smooth green body: lived on swallows and oysters");

tove (again according to Carroll "Tove, a species of Badger. They had smooth white hair, long hind legs, and short horns like a stag: lived chiefly on cheese")

tulgey (A factitious word applied to a wood; (usu. interpreted as) thick, dense, and dark);

uffish ( = HUFFISH)

vorpal (A word invented by ‘Lewis Carroll’ app. with the sense ‘keen, deadly’)

wabe (derived from the verb to swab or soak) "The side of a hill" (from its being soaked by the rain);


Well, I've learned something today!

And yet Humpty Dumpty said 'a "rath" is a sort of a green pig'.

My dictionary says a wabe is the lawn surrounding a sundial.
This makes it a good place to spot a gnomen (which is part of a sundial

Also 'Mimsy were the borogroves' was reprinted in the
Science Fiction Hall of Fame'

My surname gets mentioned in The Jabberwock ~ just after "Come into my arms....."

Though it's probably just stout to you.

My surname gets mentioned in The Jabberwock ~ just after "Come into my arms....."

Though it's probably just stout to you.

What did you think of the last Mimsy ? It was better than I was expecting.

Not a bad stout, either.

I haven't been able to persuade any of my family to watch a film they've never heard of with me, so I'll just have to watch it on my own.

Coleridge said in his poem Limbo
'Mark'd but by the flit of shades...
Unmeaning they
As moonlight on the dial of day'

Fascinating.

Websailor