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.
And 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 gimlet.
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
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