Borogoves

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A made-up creature from Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem, imagined as a scruffy bird with feathers poking out in every direction
2. In Carroll's Jabberwocky, a whimsical imaginary bird that looks thin, shabby, and somewhat like a live mop
3. A nonsense creature invented by Lewis Carroll, pictured as a ragged, thin bird whose feathers stick out all over its body

Etymology: "Borogoves" is the plural of "borogove," a word that did not exist until Lewis Carroll invented it in 1855 for his nonsense poem "Jabberwocky." No dictionary sense came before the poem, so the word has no older meaning to trace. Carroll built it the way he built most of the poem's vocabulary: by fusing familiar sounds into something that feels like a real English word without being one. The poem gives only hints of what a borogove is, so Carroll later supplied fuller descriptions. In "Through the Looking-Glass," Humpty Dumpty calls it "a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round, something like a live mop." In a later piece, "Mischmasch," Carroll described it as an extinct parrot with no wings, upturned beaks, nests under sun-dials, and a diet of veal. These details are pure invention, which is what makes the word a clean example of a made-up creature given a physical life through its author's commentary.