From: dks@MIT.EDU (dks)
Subject: Lewis Carroll's Portmanteau
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 92 09:39:52 EST
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It's not from _Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland_.
It's from _Through_the_Looking_Glass_.

Lorne asked, but I thought I'd post for all.


Dhanesh

[This post is dedicated to 'Haigha,' whose name rhymes with 'mayor.']


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  `You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,' said Alice.
`Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called
"Jabberwocky"?'

  `Let's hear it,' said Humpty Dumpty.  `I can explain all the
poems that were ever 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 thoughtfully:  `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 looking creatures.'

  `They are that,' said Humpty Dumpty:  `also they make their
nests under sun-dials -- also they live on cheese.'

  `Andy what's the "GYRE" and to "GIMBLE"?'

  `To "GYRE" is to go round and round like a gyroscope.  To
"GIMBLE" is to make holes like a gimblet.'

  `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.  `I'm afraid I'm giving
you a great deal of trouble.'

  `Well, a "RATH" is a sort of green pig:  but "MOME" I'm not
certain about.  I think it's short for "from home" -- meaning
that they'd lost their way, you know.'

  `And what does "OUTGRABE" mean?'

  `Well, "OUTGRIBING" is something between bellowing and
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?'


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