; "Brillig" : means four o'clock in the afternoon--the time when you begin broiling things for dinner. ; "Slithy" : means "lithe and slimy." ; "toves" : are something like badgers--they're something like lizards--and they're something like corkscrews. They are very curious looking creatures which make their nests under sun-dials--also they live on cheese. ; To "gyre" : is to go round and round like a gyroscope - Gyre is an actual word, circa 1566 a circular or spiral motion or form; especially : a giant circular oceanic surface current. ; To "gimble" : is to make holes like a gimlet. ; The "wabe" : is the grass-plot round a sun-dial. It's called "wabe" : because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it--and a long way beyond it on each side. ; "Mimsy" : is "flimsy and miserable" : ; "borogove" : is a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round--something like a live mop. ; "Rath" : is a sort of green pig. ; "Mome" : is (possibly) short for "from home" :--meaning that the raths had lost their way. ; "Outgribing" : is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle
The poem Jabberwocky is found in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll. It has since become famous around the world, with translations into many languages, including Spanish, German, Latin, French, Italian, and Esperanto. The following translations of the first verse are due to Frank L. Warrin (in French) and Robert Scott (in German):
The poem is particularly interesting because, although it contains many nonsensical words, the structure is perfectly consistent with classic English poetry. The sentence structure is accurate (another aspect that has been challenging to reproduce in other languages), the poetic forms are observed (e.g. quatrain verse, rhymed, iambic meter), and a "story" is somewhat discernible in the flow of events. The result of mixing this with the many nonsense words has often been interpreted as a satirical look at poetry that is excellent in form but inferior in content.
An extended analysis of the poem is given in The Annotated Alice, including writings from Carroll about how he formed some of his idiosyncratic words.
Jabberwocky (1977) is a film by Monty Python's resident animator, Terry Gilliam. It stars Michael Palin as a young cooper (barrelmaker) who is forced to hunt down a terrible dragon after the death of his father. The film, Gilliam's first as a solo director, was not well-received by critics or audiences, although it has gained something of a cult following since its release, and strongly established Gilliam's distinctive visual style and dark sense of humour.
Jabberwocky is also the name of a Saturday morning children's TV show that only aired for two seasons in the early 1970s, but was rerun in the wee hours of Saturday mornings by many TV stations up until the 1990s.