Glossary

Brillig, slithy, frabjous, chortle — the Alice books added words to the language. Every strange term explained, with Humpty Dumpty's own definitions where he gave them.

Bandersnatch

A creature of “Jabberwocky” — “shun / The frumious Bandersnatch!” Humpty Dumpty does not define it; later writers (including Carroll himself, in The Hunting of the Snark) made it swifter and more dangerous. In the poem it is simply something to be shunned.

Beamish

“Come to my arms, my beamish boy!” — from “Jabberwocky.” Humpty Dumpty: “beamish” is beaming — radiant, smiling. One of the poem’s few words that needed no translation.

Borogove

“All mimsy were the borogoves.” Humpty Dumpty: “a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round — something like a live mop.” The plural “borogoves” are the ones being mimsy.

Brillig

“‘Twas brillig.” Humpty Dumpty: “four o’clock in the afternoon — the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.” The poem’s opening word, and the anchor of its nonsense-time.

Caucus-race

The race in Wonderland, Chapter 3, run to get dry: no course, no start, no finish, everybody wins, and all must have prizes. Often read as a satire of committee politics; Carroll never confirmed the target. The word “caucus” was American political slang, new to England then.

Cheshire Cat

The grinning cat of Wonderland, Chapters 6 and 8, who vanishes leaving only his grin. “To grin like a Cheshire cat” was already a proverb — Carroll gave the proverb a cat. See characters.

Chortle

“He chortled in his joy” — from “Jabberwocky.” Carroll’s coinage, a portmanteau of “chuckle” and “snort” (by the usual account — Carroll never glossed it, but the blend is transparent). It entered the language and never left.

Dormouse

The sleeper of the Mad Tea-Party (Wonderland, Chapter 7), used as a cushion by the Hatter and the Hare, teller of the treacle-well story. A real English rodent, famously sleepy — Carroll’s casting was natural history as much as joke.

Frabjous

“O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” — from “Jabberwocky.” Humpty Dumpty does not gloss it, but the blend of “fabulous” and “joyous” is the standard reading, and the word has entered dictionaries on that understanding.

Frumious

“The frumious Bandersnatch.” Humpty Dumpty: “fuming and furious” — a portmanteau, “two meanings packed up into one word.” The textbook example of Carroll’s method.

Galumph

“He left it dead, and with its head / He went galumphing back.” A Carroll coinage for the hero’s triumphant stomp — “gallop” and “triumph” fused, by the usual reading. Now in the dictionary.

Gimble

“Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.” Humpty Dumpty: “to gimble” is “to make holes like a gimlet” — the toves bored holes in the wabe. A verb from a tool, nonsense made mechanical.

Gryphon

The impatient escort of Wonderland, Chapters 9–10: half lion, half eagle — “No, no! The adventures first.” In medieval bestiaries the gryphon guarded treasure; Carroll’s guards Alice’s schedule instead.

Gyre

“Did gyre and gimble.” Humpty Dumpty: “to gyre” is “to go round and round like a gyroscope.” The toves scratched and bored in circles — nonsense with physics in it.

Humpty Dumpty

The egg-philosopher of Looking-Glass, Chapter 6: explainer of “Jabberwocky,” inventor of the portmanteau, giver of un-birthday presents. Borrowed from the nursery rhyme; Carroll made him a philosopher of language.

Jabberwock

The monster of “Jabberwocky” — “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! / The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!” Slain by the beamish boy with his vorpal sword. Carroll never described it beyond the poem; every illustrator’s Jabberwock is their own.

Jubjub bird

“The jubjub bird” of “Jabberwocky,” mentioned once and never explained — pure atmosphere. Carroll later gave it a shriek in The Hunting of the Snark.

Knave of Hearts

The accused of Wonderland’s trial: charged with stealing the Queen’s tarts, defended by nothing, convicted by a poem. From the nursery rhyme “The Queen of Hearts” — Carroll staged the rhyme as a courtroom.

Looking-glass

A mirror — and the portal of the second book. Behind it, things “go the other way”: left and right reversed, time running backward, books printed in mirror-writing. See the Looking-Glass world.

Mad Hatter

The tea-party host of Wonderland, Chapter 7 — “mad” by the Cheshire Cat’s testimony, stuck at six o’clock, asker of unanswerable riddles. The mercury poisoning of real hatters is a later scholarly suggestion, not in Carroll’s text.

March Hare

The Hatter’s companion, “much the most interesting” because in May it is (perhaps) less mad than in March. “Mad as a March hare” was proverbial — hares box in breeding season; Carroll gave the proverb a seat at tea.

Mimsy

“All mimsy were the borogoves.” Humpty Dumpty: “flimsy and miserable” — another portmanteau, “two meanings packed up into one word.”

Mock Turtle

The weeping creature of Wonderland, Chapters 9–10: calf’s head on a turtle’s body, schooled by a Tortoise, singer of the Lobster Quadrille. Mock-turtle soup was made from calf’s head — the pun is the whole creature.

Mome

“And the mome raths outgrabe.” Humpty Dumpty: he is “not sure” about “mome” — “I think it’s short for ‘from home’ — meaning that they’d lost their way, you know.” The one word even Humpty Dumpty hedges on.

Outgrabe

“And the mome raths outgrabe.” Humpty Dumpty: “outgrabe” is “something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle” — the past tense of “outgribe.” The raths’ evening noise.

Portmanteau

Humpty Dumpty’s term for a word with “two meanings packed up into one word” — like a traveling case with two compartments. “Slithy” (lithe + slimy), “mimsy” (flimsy + miserable), “frumious” (fuming + furious). The term entered linguistics; Carroll coined it.

Rath

“And the mome raths outgrabe.” Humpty Dumpty: “a rath is a sort of green pig” — which outgrabes in the evening. The poem’s most confidently defined animal.

Red Queen

The severe queen of Looking-Glass: she runs Alice at full speed to stay in place and examines her on manners and arithmetic. Not the Queen of Hearts — a common confusion; they belong to different books and different games.

Slithy

“And the slithy toves.” Humpty Dumpty: “lithe and slimy” — “it’s like a portmanteau — there are two meanings packed up into one word.” The first and most famous of the portmanteaus.

Snark

Not in the Alice books — the quarry of The Hunting of the Snark (1876), Carroll’s later nonsense epic: “the impossible voyage of an improbable crew.” Included because readers meet it on the way from Alice to the rest of Carroll.

Tove

“And the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.” Humpty Dumpty: “something like badgers — they’re something like lizards — and they’re something like corkscrews.” They also “make their nests under sun-dials” and “live on cheese.”

Treacle well

The Dormouse’s story (Wonderland, Chapter 7): Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie live at the bottom of a treacle well and live on treacle. “Treacle” was also a dialect word for a healing spring — St. Margaret’s Well at Binsey, near Oxford, was a real “treacle well” the Liddells would have known.

Tulgey

“The tulgey wood.” Humpty Dumpty does not define it; the standard reading is “thick, dark, tangled” — the wood where the Jabberwock waits. Atmosphere as vocabulary.

Tumtum tree

“By the Tumtum tree” — where the boy rests, and where the Jabberwock comes whiffling. Never described; every reader’s Tumtum tree is their own.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

The fat little logicians of Looking-Glass, Chapter 4: “Contrariwise… that’s logic.” Borrowed from an old nursery rhyme; Carroll made them philosophers of the obvious.

Uffish

“He stood awhile in uffish thought” — the beamish boy, waiting by the Tumtum tree. Carroll never glossed it; readers hear something between “huffy” and “pensive” in it. A mood in a single syllable.

Un-birthday

Humpty Dumpty’s present to Alice: “an un-birthday present” — a present given on any of the 364 days that aren’t your birthday. The arithmetic of generosity, Looking-Glass style.

Vorpal

“He took his vorpal sword in hand.” The poem’s great adjective — “vorpal blade,” “vorpal sword” — never defined by Carroll, endlessly borrowed since (games, novels, code-names). It sounds sharp; that is its definition.

Wabe

“Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.” Humpty Dumpty: “the grass-plot round a sun-dial” — “it’s called ‘wabe,’ you know, because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it.” The toves’ scratching-ground.

Whiffling

“And, as in uffish thought he stood, / The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, / Came whiffling through the tulgey wood.” The monster’s arrival-sound — breathy, snuffling, unmistakable.

White Knight

The gentle rescuer of Looking-Glass, Chapter 8: inventor of absurd devices, singer of “A-sitting on a gate,” escort to the eighth square. Many readers see Carroll himself; he never confirmed it.

White Queen

The backwards-living queen of Looking-Glass: she screams before she pricks her finger, remembers next week, and believes six impossible things before breakfast. The book’s kindest absurdity.

White Rabbit

The waistcoated, watch-carrying rabbit of Wonderland — “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!” The story’s inciting incident, its anxious official, and its herald at the trial.

Queen of Hearts

The tyrant of Wonderland’s croquet ground and courtroom: “Off with their heads!” — though the King quietly pardons everyone she condemns. See characters.

Duchess

The moralizing duchess of Wonderland, Chapters 6 and 9: peppery kitchen, pig-baby, and a moral for everything — “Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves.”

Caterpillar

The hookah-smoking philosopher of Wonderland, Chapter 5: “Who are YOU?” — rude, oracular, and the source of the mushroom that lets Alice control her size.

Cheshire Cat (saying)

“To grin like a Cheshire cat” predates Carroll — the saying’s origin is disputed (Cheshire cheeses molded into grinning cats is one theory). Carroll’s contribution was giving the grin a cat, and then taking the cat away.

Jabberwocky

The poem Alice finds printed backwards in Looking-Glass House (Chapter 1) and has explicated by Humpty Dumpty (Chapter 6) — 28 lines of portmanteau verse, the most famous nonsense poem in English. Quoted (first verse) on the sayings page; explicated in full on nonsense and language.

Wonderland

The world down the rabbit-hole: its physics, its courts, its tea-parties. Mapped on the Wonderland guide.

Looking-glass world

The world behind the mirror: a chessboard countryside with reversed rules. Mapped on the Looking-Glass world page.

Source notes

• Humpty Dumpty’s definitions: Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 6; quoted as he gives them, including his uncertainty about “mome.”
• “Jabberwocky”: Looking-Glass, Chapter 1; verified against the Project Gutenberg text.
• The “treacle well” dialect note (Binsey’s St. Margaret’s Well) is the standard scholarly attribution.

Limitations

• Words Humpty Dumpty never defined (“frabjous,” “chortle,” “galumph,” “vorpal,” “uffish”) are glossed by standard scholarly consensus, stated as such.
• Proverb origins (“Cheshire cat,” “March hare”) are disputed; this glossary gives the leading theories as theories.