Brillig

'Brillig' is essentially a nonsense word from a famous poem, 'Jabberwocky' by author Lewis Carroll
(of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass).

Appearing in Through the Looking Glass, the poem 'Jabberwocky' is discovered by Alice in a strange book she finds.
It is written backwards and she must hold the book up to the mirror to read it.

Full of invented words, 'Jabberwocky' tells the tale of a young boy's heroic efforts to slay the fearsome 'Jabberwock.'

The first stanza of the poem sets the scene:

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogroves, and the mome raths outgrabe."

Alice responds to the poem by saying: "Somehow it fills my head with ideas --only I don't exactly know what they are!"
The poem was later 'translated'by Humpty Dumpty for Alice, and there we find the (rough) meaning of 'brillig':
dusk, or the early evening time

When brillig handed one of their CDs to Robert Smith (The Cure), he smiled knowingly and started reciting "Twas brillig and the slithy toves...."

CLICK ARROWS FOR A LINK TO THE FULL POEM>>>