slithy
English
Etymology
Blend of lithe + slimy, coined by Lewis Carroll in 1871[1]
Pronunciation
Adjective
slithy
- lithe and slimy or slithery.
- The squid wrapped its slithy tentacles around its prey.
- 1871, Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky:
- 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
- 1906, Good Housekeeping, volume 43, page 130:
- She wanted to wear these slithy, snaky gowns you see in the pictures in the hallways of the $3 photographers.
- 1914, Edgar Thomas Ainger Wigram, The Cradle of Mankind: Life in Eastern Kurdistan:
- Such a carriage is known as “an araba,” or alternatively as an yaili—a name which is probably onomatopœic, for it is about the “slithiest” thing that runs on wheels.
- 1917, Gertrude Singleton Mathews, Treasure, page 126:
- Falling roof, hidden shafts, slithiest snakes could not have stopped me after that. I arrived in the sparkling area.
- 2013, Jane Wilson-Howarth, A Glimpse of Eternal Snows:
- He sweeps down; a frog is pinioned / Swift arrives his faithful soul-mate / True-loves share their slithy dinner.
- 2014, Timothy Edward, Lessons in Humiliation, page 157:
- The Beast, slithier even than the Jabberwock and certainly a deal more manxsome as a foe, grips in its claws a dreaded P45 from Piers marking the end of employment at Gussage Court.
Translations
slimy and lithe
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See also
Jabberwocky on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
References
- “slithy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- ^ Lewis Carroll (1871) “Humpty Dumpty”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There: “Well, ‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy.’ ‘Lithe’ is the same as ‘active.’ You see, it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.”