What does the word "Vorpal" come from?

[Piratecat]

Hey, "Vorpal" is a perfectly cromulant word.

It embiggens us.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Do any of you know the Black Adder series?

Are you trying to be funny?

Anybody know the rest of the scene?

Prince George: Enter!
Edmund: Dr. Johnson, Your Highness.
Prince George: Ah, Dr. Johnson! Damn cold day!
Dr. Johnson: Indeed it is, sir, but a very fine one, for I celebrated last night the encyclopedic implementation of my pre-meditated orchestration of demotic Anglo-Saxon.
Prince George: (nods, grinning, then speaks) Nope -- didn't catch any of that.
Dr. Johnson: Well, I simply observed, sir, that I'm felicitous, since, during the course of the penultimate solar sojourn, I terminated my uninterrupted categorization of the vocabulary of our post-Norman tongue.
Prince George: Well, I don't know what you're talking about, but it sounds damn saucy, you lucky thing! I know some fairly liberal-minded girls, but I've never penultimated any of them in a solar sojourn, or, for that matter, been given any Norman tongue!
Edmund: I believe, sir, that the Doctor is trying to tell you that he is happy because he has finished his book. It has, apparently, taken him ten years.
Prince George: Yes, well, I'm a slow reader myself...
Dr. Johnson: (places two manuscripts on the table, but picks up the top one) Here it is, sir: the very cornerstone of English scholarship. This book, sir, contains every word in our beloved language.
Prince George: Hmm.
Edmund: Every single one, sir?
Dr. Johnson: (confidently) Every single word, sir!
Edmund: (to Prince) Oh, well, in that case, sir, I hope you will not object if I also offer the Doctor my most enthusiastic contrafribularities.
Dr. Johnson: What?
Edmund: 'Contrafribularities', sir? It is a common word down our way...
Dr. Johnson: Damn! (writes in the book)
Edmund: Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I'm anispeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericombobulation.
Dr. Johnson: What? What? WHAT?
Prince George: What are you on about, Blackadder? This is all beginning to sound a bit like dago talk to me.
Edmund: I'm sorry, sir. I merely wished to congratulate the Doctor on not having left out a single word. (Johnson sneers) Shall I fetch the tea, Your Highness?
Prince George: Yes, yes! And get that damned fire up here, will you?
Edmund: Certainly, sir. I shall return... interfrastically. (exits) (Johnson writes some more)

Shortly after...

Dr. Johnson: Farewell! (opens door to find Edmund with tea tray)
Edmund: Leaving already, Doctor? Not staying for your pendigestatery interludicule?
Dr. Johnson: No, sir! Show me out!
Edmund: Certainly, sir. Anything I can do to facilitate your velocitous extramuralisation...
Dr. Johnson: (to Prince) You will regret this doubly, sir. Not only have you impeculiated (turns to Edmund and makes a boasting noise, then continues) my dictionary, but you've also lost the chance to act as patron to the only book in the world that is even better.
Edmund: Oh, and what is that, sir? 'Dictionary II: The Return of the Killer Dictionary'?

-Hyp.

 

[Unseelie]

TABLESPOONS
Jabberwocky ala Apple Newton

Teas Willis, and the sticky tours
Did gym and Gibbs in the wake.
All mimes were the borrowers,
And the moderate Belgrade.

"Beware the tablespoon my son,
The teeth that bite, the Claus that catch.
Beware the Subjects bird, and shred
The serious Bandwidth!"

He took his Verbal sword in hand:
Long time the monitors fog he sought,
So rested he by the Tumbled tree,
And stood a while in thought.

And as in selfish thought he stood,
The tablespoon, with eyes of Flame,
Came stifling through the trigger wood,
And troubled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and though,
The Verbal blade went thicker shade.
He left it dead, and with its head,
He went gambling back.

"And host Thai slash the tablespoon?
Come to my arms my bearish boy.
Oh various day! Cartoon! Cathay!"
He charted in his joy.

Teas Willis, and the sticky tours
Did gym and Gibbs in the wake.
All mimes were the borrowers,
And the moderate Belgrade.

 

[Gez]

Excellent! Do you also have the German? "Es brillich was, und der schliben toven,..."

I found a lot of translations here:
http://www76.pair.com/keithlim/jabberwocky/translations/index.html

 

[Knightfall]

Now for some of those other words in "Jabberwocky," icluding brillig.

`And what does "OUTGRABE" mean?'

`Well, "OUTGRIBING" is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle: however, you'll hear it done, maybe -- down in the wood yonder -- and when you've once heard it you'll be QUITE content. Who's been repeating all that hard stuff to you?'

Who indeed?

Ah, so that's the sound of Dyrath wiping out. Very informatutive!

 

[johnsemlak]

From the online Oxford English Dictionary.



It's ironic that meanings have been assigned to nonsense words he invented and have subsequently made it into the dictionary. Perhaps in a century's time people will be reading Jabberwocky and what exactly is going on will be crystal clear.

Great resourse, the OED.

Wish it was free (I know, get real John)

 

[Tom Cashel]

It embiggens us.

Embiggens us? That's unpossible!

 

[Flyspeck23]

Embiggens us? That's unpossible!

Sharfizzilous language skill! Give that shusbud a frigard lesson!

 

[aliensex]

Embiggens us? That's unpossible!

Oooooooh! Him Simpsons quote good!

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Just a couple of notes for the enlightenment and edification, perhaps amusement of the Readers:

Doubletalk, the creation of nonsense words and using them in sentences, was quite the rage in the 1940s. My friend Tom Keogh's father, an artist, illustrator, and inventor of the little bird that sits on the edge of a glass and periodically dips its head down as if drinking, was fluent in double talk such as Edmund Blackaddar used in dealing with Dr. Johnson in the quoted skit. Tom came up with SF device the uctrodynamic decompulsitator to frillibate nexual pretarders.

As for swords, the Sword of Sharpness was a direct lift from one of Andrew Lang's fairy tales, but I'll admit I can't recall which story it appeared in...


Cheers,
Gary