J Matthew Pearson wrote:
> 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.
That's odd. Especially as we don't use "broil" over here. I think broil
means to fry or to roast, but I'm not sure. To most people here "broil"
would sound like a mix of "boil" and "fry". Very few people know what
"broil" actually means here in Britain. I'm one of those who don't. To me
"brillig" looks like the OE version of "brilliant", dispite the fact that
"brilliant" is from an Italian word.
Dan
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La plus belle fois qu'on m'a dit
"je t'aime"
c'était un mec
qui me l'a dit...
Francis Lalane
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