What were the borogoves like in Jabberwocky?

Answer 1

In Through the Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty defines a 'borogove' as, "a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round -- something like a live mop." Sixteen years earlier, Carroll described it in this way, "an extinct kind of Parrot. They had no wings, beaks turned up, made their nests under sun-dials and lived on veal."

Answer 2

In Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky," the borogoves are described as bird-like creatures with shaggy manes and green feathers. They are said to have thin bodies and be able to gyre and gimble in the wabe. Despite their peculiar appearance, their exact characteristics remain ambiguous and open to interpretation.

Answer 3

Mimsy

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

Answer 4

Nothing "did mimsy and borogoves" in the poem Jabberwocky, as the two words aren't verbs, they are an adjective and a noun, respectively. The original poem says, "All mimsy were the borogoves," ie the borogoves were mimsy.

In 1855 Lewis Carroll defined mimsy in this way:

MIMSY: (whence 'mimserable' and 'miserable') "unhappy"

In 1871, in his book Through the Looking Glass, he had Humpty Dumpty define it like this:

"mimsy" is "flimsy and miserable" (there's another portmanteau for you).

Carroll also defined the word borogove in 1855:

BOROGOVE: an extinct kind of Parrot. They had no wings, beaks turned up, made their nests under sun-dials and lived on veal.

In 1871, Humpty Dumpty described borogoves in this way:

...a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round -- something like a live mop.