unsurprising that Tenniel gave the Jabberwock "the leathery wings of a pterodactyl and

the long scaly neck and tail of a sauropod."[6]

[edit] Lexicon

Jabberwocky

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“
”
from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1872).
Many of the words in the poem are playful nonce words of Carroll's own invention,
without intended explicit meaning. When Alice has finished reading the poem she gives
her impressions:
'It seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, 'but it's rather hard to
understand!' (You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself, that she couldn't
make it out at all.) 'Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—-only I don't
exactly know what they are! However, somebody killed something: that's clear, at
any rate'[1]
This may reflect Carroll's intention for his readership; the poem is, after all, part of a
dream. In later writings, he discussed some of his own created lexicon, commenting that
he didn't know his source for some of the words; the linguistic ambiguity and uncertainty
throughout both the book and the poem, may largely be the point.[7] In Through the
Looking-Glass, the character of Humpty Dumpty gives comments on the non-sense
words from the first stanza of the poem, however Carroll's personal commentary on
several of the words differ from Humpty's. For example, following the poem, a 'rath' is
described by Humpty as "a sort of green pig".[8] Carroll's notes for the original in
Mischmasch suggest a 'rath' is "a species of Badger" that "lived chiefly on cheese" and
had smooth white hair, long hind legs, and short horns like a stag.[9] The appendices to
certain Looking Glass editions, however, state that the creature is "a species of land
turtle" that lived on swallows and oysters.[9] Later commentators have added their own
interpretations of the lexicon, often without reference to Carroll's own contextual
commentary. An extended analysis of the poem and Carroll's commentary is given in the
book The Annotated Alice by Martin Gardner.
In January 1868, Carroll wrote to his publisher Macmillan asking "Have you any means,
or can you find any, for printing a page or two of the next volume of Alice in reverse".
This may suggest that Carroll was wanting to print the whole poem in mirror writing.
Macmillian responded that it would cost a great deal more to do, and this may have
dissuaded him.[9]
Jabberwocky (UK English)

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In an author's note on Through the Looking-Glass dated Christmas 1896, Carroll wrote:
"The new words, in the poem Jabberwocky, have given rise to some differences of
opinion as to their pronunciation: so it may be well to give instructions on that point also.
Pronounce 'slithy' as if it were the two words, 'sly, thee': make the 'g' hard in 'gyre' and
'gimble': and pronounce 'rath' to rhyme with 'bath.'"[10] In the Preface to The Hunting of
the Snark, Carroll wrote: "[Let] me take this opportunity of answering a question that has
often been asked me, how to pronounce "slithy toves." The "i" in "slithy" is long, as in
"writhe"; and "toves" is pronounced so as to rhyme with "groves." Again, the first "o" in
"borogoves" is pronounced like the "o" in "borrow." I have heard people try to give it the
sound of the "o" in "worry." Such is Human Perversity."[11]

[edit] Possible interpretations of words

• Bandersnatch: A swift moving creature with snapping jaws, capable of extending
its neck.[11] A 'bander' was also an archaic word for a 'leader', suggesting that a
'bandersnatch' might be an animal that hunts the leader of a group.[9]

• Β ε α µ ι σ η : Radiantly beaming, happy, cheerful. Although Carroll may

have believed he had coined this word, it is cited in the Oxford English Dictionary
in 1530.[12]

• Β ο ρ ο γ ο ϖ ε : Following the poem Humpty Dumpty says " 'borogove' is a

thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round, something like a
live mop." In explanatory book notes Carroll describes it further as "an extinct
kind of Parrot. They had no wings, beaks turned up, made their nests under sun-
dials and lived on veal."[9] In Hunting of the Snark, Carroll says that the initial
syllable of borogove is pronounced as in borrow rather than as in worry.
[8]HYPERLINK \l "cite_note-HoS-10"[11]

• Βρ ι λ λ ι γ Following the poem, the character of Humpty Dumpty

comments: " 'Brillig' means four o'clock in the afternoon, the time when you
begin broiling things for dinner."[8] According to Mischmasch, it is derived from
the verb to bryl or broil.

• Β υ ρ β λ ε δ . In a letter of December 1877 Carroll notes that 'burble' could

be a mixture of the three verbs 'bleat', 'murmer', and 'warble', although he didn't
remember creating it.[12]HYPERLINK \l "cite_note-ReferenceA-12"[13]

• Χη ο ρ τ λ ε δ : "Combination of chuckle' and 'snort' (OED)

• Φ ρ α β ϕ ο υ σ : Possibly a blend of fair, fabulous, and joyous. Definition

from Oxford English Dictionary, credited to Lewis Carroll.

• Frumious: Combination of "fuming" and "furious". In Hunting of the Snark

Carroll comments: "[T]ake the two words 'fuming' and 'furious'. Make up your
mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first.
Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughts incline ever so little towards
'fuming', you will say 'fuming-furious'; if they turn, by even a hair's breadth,
towards 'furious', you will say 'furious-fuming'; but if you have the rarest of gifts,
a perfectly balanced mind, you will say 'fruminous'."[11]

• Γ α λ υ µ π η ι ν γ : Perhaps used in the poem a blend of 'gallop' and

'triumphant'.[12] Used later by Kipling, and cited by Webster as "To move with a
clumsy and heavy tread"[14]
• Gimble:"To make holes as does a gimlet."[8]

• Γ ψ ρ ε : "To 'gyre' is to go round and round like a gyroscope."[8] Gyre is

entered in the OED from 1420, meaning a circular or spiral motion or form;
especially a giant circular oceanic surface current. However, Carroll also wrote in
Mischmasch that it meant to scratch like a dog.[9] The g is pronounced like the /g/
in gold, not like gem.[15]

• Jabberwocky: When a class in the Girls’ Latin School in Boston asked Carroll’s
permission to name their school magazine The Jabberwock, he replied: "The
Anglo-Saxon word ‘wocer’ or ‘wocor’ signifies ‘offspring’ or ‘fruit’. Taking
‘jabber’ in its ordinary acceptation of ‘excited and voluble discussion,’"[9]

• ϑυ β ϕ υ β β ι ρ δ : 'A desperate bird that lives in perpetual passion',

according to the Butcher in Carroll's later poem The Hunting of the Snark.[11]
'Jub' is an ancient word for a jerkin or a dialect word for the trot of a horse (OED).
It might make reference to the call of the bird resembling the sound "jub, jub".[9]

• Manxome: Possibly 'fearsome'; A portmanteau of "manly" and "buxom", the latter

relating to men for most of its history; or relating to Manx people.

• Μ ι µ σ ψ : " 'Mimsy' is 'flimsy and miserable' ".[8]

• Mome rath: Humpty Dumpty says following the poem: "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".[8] Carroll's notes for the original in Mischmasch state:
"a species of Badger [which] had smooth white hair, long hind legs, and short
horns like a stag [and] lived chiefly on cheese”[9] Explanatory book notes
comment that 'Mome' means to seem 'grave' and a 'Rath': is "a species of land
turtle. Head erect, mouth like a shark, the front forelegs curved out so that the
animal walked on its knees, smooth green body, lived on swallows and
oysters."[9] In the 1951 film version, the mome raths are small, multi-colored
creatures with tufty hair, round eyes, and long legs resembling pipe stems.

• Outgrabe: Humpty says " 'outgribing' is something between bellowing and

whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle".[8] Carroll's book appendices
suggest it is the past tense of the verb to 'outgribe', connected with the old verb to
'grike' or 'shrike', which derived 'shriek' and 'creak' and hence 'squeak'.[9]

• Σ λ ι τ η ψ : Humpty Dumpty says: " '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."[8] The original in MischMasch notes that 'slithy'
means "smooth and active"[9] The i is long, as in writhe.

• Σν ι χ κ ε ρ− σνα χ κ : possibly related to the large knife, the

snickersnee.[12]

• Tove: Humpty Dumpty says " 'Toves' are something like badgers, they're
 something like lizards, and they're something like corkscrews. [...] Also they
make their nests under sun-dials, also they live on cheese."[8] Pronounced so as to
rhyme with groves.[11] They "gyre and gimble," i.e. rotate and bore.

• Τ υ λ γ ε ψ : Carroll himself said he could give no source for Tulgey. Could be

taken to mean thick, dense, dark.
Uffish: Carroll noted "It seemed to suggest a state of mind when the voice is gruffish,
the manner roughish, and the temper huffish".[12]HYPERLINK \l "cite_note-
ReferenceA-12"[13]

• ς ο ρ π α λ : Carroll said he could not explain this word, though it has been
noted that it can be formed by taking letters alternately from "verbal" and
"gospel".[16]

• Wabe: The characters in the poem suggest it means "The grass plot around a
sundial", called a 'wa-be' because it goes a long way before it, and a long way
behind it".[8] In the original MischMasch text, Carroll states a 'wabe' is "the side
of a hill (from its being soaked by rain)".[9]

[edit] Poetics
Although the poem contains many nonsensical words, it holds English syntax and poetic
forms are observed, such as the quatrain verses, the general abab rhyme scheme, and the
iambic meter.[17]
Parsons describes the work's "logical non-sense" as a "semiotic catastrophe", since the
words create a discernible narrative within the structure of the poem, but we don't
accurately know what they symbolise. She argues that Humpty tries, after the recitation,
to "ground" the unruly multiplicities of meaning with definitions, but he cannot succeed,
as both the book and the poem are a playground for the "carnivalised aspect of language".
Parsons suggests that this is mirrored in the prosody of the poem: in the tussle between
the tetrameter in the first three lines of each stanza and trimeter in the last lines, such that
one undercuts the other and we are left off balance