Mimsy Were The Borogoves Pdf Download
Osman Briseno
At the prompt of a second kind commenter, let me note that the modifier all doesn't help us figure out whether to choose noun or adjective for mimsy. (Perhaps this part of the sly whimsy of the Deacon Dodgson.) If we're thinking noun, then all is an acceptable as a universal determinative, as in
(Note the ambiguity. In an intensifying role -- We are all very excited -- the Ngram viewer finds few examples in the 19th century, and it seems to be an American colloquialism. The universal role -- We are all of us excited -- is common and earlier.)
antsy artsy backwoodsy bitsy blousy blowsy1 bluesy booksy bossy bousy2 brassy busy3 cheesy choosy citrusy classy clumsy4 cosy5 creasy cutesy6 ditsy dressy drowsy7 easy flimsy8 flossy folksy fussy gassy glassy glossy gneissy goosy grassy greasy gutsy hissy kissy lossy lousy messy minstrelsy mossy mousy mussy newsy noisy nosy outdoorsy primrosy prissy queasy9 rosy sassy sudsy teensy10 tipsy tricksy weensy11 woodsy wussy
apostasy autopsy biopsy catalepsy controversy courtesy curtsy daisy dropsy dyspepsy ecstasy embassy epilepsy fantasy footsy geodesy gypsy heresy hypocrisy hypostasy idiosyncrasy isostasy jealousy leprosy narcolepsy necropsy palsy pansy pleurisy poesy pussy speakeasy whimsy
Given the distribution favoring adjectives of words ending in -sy, the lexical likelihood of finding a related noun, the syntactic constraints on number, and the fact that this is a poem, where the subject/adjectival-complement order may be inverted, a fluent English speaker will consider that mimsy is an adjective meaning having the qualities of a mim, some noun unknown.
Later in the book, Humpty Dumpty gives Alice an explanation of the odd words in the poem and he defines 'mimsy' as 'miserable and flimsy'. In other words, we know it is an adjective because Lewis Carroll intended it to be one.
Fortunately, Carroll's own definition assigns the part of speech to 'mimsy'. Otherwise, the word might now be taken as an early and unprecedented appearance of the British regional 'mimsy', also an adjective, but with a somewhat different meaning, although latterly sometimes influenced by Carroll's coinage:
The first part of the compound, 'mim', has a much earlier provenance, first appearing around 1586, and attested through 1991. It is also an adjective (and adverb), used regionally in Scottish and British English:
Reserved or restrained in manner or behaviour, esp. in a contrived or priggish way; affectedly modest, demure; primly silent, quiet; affectedly moderate or abstemious in diet (rare). Also (occas.) of a person's appearance.
However, Carroll himself was kind enough to differentiate between his 'mimsy' and the British regional 'mimsy'. As Humpty Dumpty explained to Alice, 'mimsy' is a portmanteau of 'flimsy' and 'miserable' (Through the Looking Glass, 1871):
The portmanteau clearly amounts to something akin to 'unhappy', but if there was any doubt, that meaning is made explicit in Carroll's gloss of the first verse of "Jabberwocky", first published in Carroll's own literary magazine, Mischmasch, in 1855.
The evidence from the 1855 Mischmasch, along with the evidence given by Humpty Dumpty in the 1871 Through the Looking Glass, leaves no doubt that 'mimsy' is an adjective. Without that evidence, 'mimsy' could well be a noun, verb or even a subdued interjection in poetic use.
The poem is a pastiche of heroic poetry such as Beowulf. This inversion is generally seen by native English speakers as old-fashioned/archaic. There are many other archaic constructions in the poem too - just in that first verse, "twas midnight" and "the slithy toves did gyre" are forms which were no longer in use in spoken English at the time Carroll wrote it.
Whilst this is amusing in its own right, it's also a dig at the Victorian poets who were (in all seriousness) writing heroic poetry and using these archaic constructions to try to add gravitas to their writing. Edward Lear did the same with some of his nonsense rhymes - The Cummerbund is a prime example, although Lear took it a step further by using genuine words. (Look up the actual meanings for the Indian words referenced!)
This tells us that the original example has had its subject inverted, because subject-verb inversion applies only in root (unembedded) clauses. So we know that "the borogoves" is subject, and "were" agrees in number with that subject:
Dear Humpty Dumpty (c/o ``The loose-leaf library,'' July 16, 1985), I'm sorry to have to say this, but your explanation of ``Jabberwocky'' disappoints me. It may have satisfied Alice, but then it wouldn't take much to satisfy an unimaginative child like Alice. If she'd had any imagination at all, she would not have had to consult you in the first place. I suspect you simply made up your answers to her questions as you went along, encouraged by the fact that your audience seemed to accept your interpretation without argument and you as an authority. In all honesty, H. D. , I cannot, and there may be many others like me who would appreciate the opportunity to sit on the wall with you and at least discuss the matter -- not too seriously, of course. Alice is far too serious about things, don't you think?
A slithy tove, and you cannot ever separate the slithy from the tove, has always been a slippery customer, man or beast, elusive, hard to pin down, full of excuses but somewhat lovable nonetheless. You know the sort.
To gyre and gimble in the wabe is best illustrated by the aquatic antics of dolphins, but creatures less streamlined with flailing limbs can do it too, perhaps even better. And you don't have to be a slithy tove to gyre and gimble. Even a Humpty Dumpty like you could do it. It's the sheer joy of cavorting, gamboling, and whirling in the wabe that's important.
All mimsy is very special, and unmistakable when you see it but otherwise quite rare. First you have to understand that borogoves are not shabby-looking birds at all but a grove of tropical trees with lush, feathery leaves, growing partly in a bayou. All mimsy is when a light wind plays through the leaves 'til they are all a-shimmer in the sunlight in the top branches, but all is still and dark beneath. I have never actually seen a borogove grove but I have seen trees go all mimsy. An unforgettable sigh t.
The mome raths I am less sure about except to say they are gray and shadowy creatures lurking in the borogoves and much too shy to show their faces. Outgrabe might be the sound they make, as you suggest, but it could also mean to stretch out for a delicious catnap with a great sigh of contentment.
In the borogoves we would most likely outgrabe during the heat of the day. In other places outgrabing tends to go on after the day's work is done. Of course, mome raths don't know the meaning of the word work. For all we know they outgrabe all day long. But that doesn't matter. The real point is that it sounds right and so makes perfect sense. It doesn't really need any explanation at all. Now what do you suppose Alice would have to say about that? Yours ever,
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