What does the word Jabberwocky mean?

Answer 1

In a letter to a school which wanted to name their school magazine 'Jabberwocky', Lewis Carroll wrote:

He [Carroll] finds that the Anglo-Saxon word "wocer" or "wocor" signifies "offspring" or "fruit." Taking "jabber" in its ordinary acceptation of "excited and voluble discussion," this would give the meaning of "the result of much excited discussion."

So, by this definition, 'Jabberwocky' means 'the fruit of excited discussion'.

source: Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice

Answer 2

"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll that first appeared in his novel "Through the Looking-Glass." The word itself has no specific meaning, as it was created by Carroll to evoke a sense of whimsy and fantasy in the poem.

Answer 3

The second stanza of Jabberwocky is a warning from a person who is presumably the father of the hero of the story. He warns his son to be careful of and to avoid three different monsters; the Jabberwock, the Jubjub bird and the Bandersnatch. The third of these monsters is described as 'frumious', a word which Lewis Carroll said means 'fuming and furious'.

Answer 4

"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."

So, we see that the basic story relates to a hunt for the Jabberwock, who is some kind of fearsome foe. Three words from these two stanzas are "new" in English, with frumious and manxome being portmanteau words (the former probably collapsing furious and fuming--though why then the presence of the "r"?; the latter being a combination of manly and buxom--"buxom" related to men for the majority of its history), while the other (vorpal) has been taken up in many contexts in English (just do a "Google" search on the word), even though it isn't really a part of spoken or literary English.

In the next section of the poem a word appears that was invented by Carroll and still survives today: chortle.

Answer 5

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Explained by Humpty Dumpty to Alice;

"Brillig" means four o'clock in the afternoon -- the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.'

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.'

"toves" are something like badgers -- they're something like lizards -- and they're something like corkscrews.'