A Little Nonsense Now and Then Is Relished by the Wisest Men
"The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for March 12 is:
jabberwocky • \JAB-er-wah-kee\ • noun
: meaningless speech or writing
Example sentence:
"The salesman started spewing computer jabberwocky at me like an auctioneer. I understood about every sixth word he uttered." (Larry D. Clifton, The Tampa Tribune, September 6, 1998)
Did you know?
In a poem titled "Jabberwocky" in the book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1872), Lewis Carroll warned his readers about a frightful beast:
Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!
This nonsensical poem caught the public’s fancy, and by 1902 "jabberwocky" was being used as a generic term for meaningless speech or writing. The word "bandersnatch" has also seen some use as a general noun, with the meaning "a wildly grotesque or bizarre individual." It’s a much rarer word than "jabberwocky," though, and is entered only in our unabridged dictionary, Webster’s Third New International."
yegg: a safecracker or robber
incorrigible: incapable of being corrected; delinquent
duck soup: something easy to do; requiring little effort
Wellerism: an expression of comparison combining a well-known phrase with a humorous or punning conclusion. For example: "It all comes back to me now, said the Captain as he spit into the wind." Inspired by the character Sam Weller from Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers.
Contrary to popular belief, "supposably" is a real word. It is synonymous with "conceivably." From Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: sup·pos·able
Pronunciation: s&-'pO-z&-b&l
Function: adjective
: capable of being supposed : CONCEIVABLE
- sup·pos·ably /-blE/ adverb

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