Re: Suggestive nonsense (was: K-Rad)

D Tse wrote:

> >> I always thought it was a kind of weather, something like a bright sunny
> >> day.  But, a noun certainly fits as well.
> >
> >Same here. Brilliant is the real English adjective that it always makes me
> >think of, as in a bright day.
>
> Actually I thought it was a portmanteau (cf slithy) of brilliant and some
> other word. When I read the poem the first time I think I thought of it as
> a weaather thing.
No.  As I mentioned in another email, "brillig" comes from "broil".  Humpty
Dumpty explains quite clearly that "brillig" means four o'clock in the
afternoon--the time when you begin *broiling* things for dinner.

"Jabberwocky" was originally intended as a kind of parody of Anglo-Saxon
poetry.  "Brillig" is evidently a mock-Anglo-Saxon back-formation from "broil".

Matt.

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