![]() Finally, it wouldn’t be right to talk about children’s literature without mentioning our favourite yellow bear. ![]() ![]() Nonsense words are perfect for describing the back-to-front, topsy-turvy, and dreamlike worlds that Alice visits. Other similarly fused (and more nonsense-like) words from the same poem include ‘galumph’ (to gallop triumphantly) and ‘frumious’ (a combination of furious and fuming). Did you know that the word ‘chortle’ was coined by Lewis Carroll? He used the term in his famous poem Jabberwocky which appears in the book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), and it is a fusion of the words ‘chuckle’ and ‘snort’.I don’t know about you, but if I can use ‘runcible spoon’, I’m never using the word ‘spork’ again! The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) describes a ‘runcible spoon’ as: ‘a fork curved like a spoon, with three broad prongs, one of which has a sharpened outer edge for cutting’. The term ‘runcible spoon’ has been stuck in my brain ever since I first heard the poem as a child, but what on earth does it refer to? Before today, I had no idea. ‘They dined on mince, and slices of quinceĪnd hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, My personal favourite example appears in a few of his works, the most famous being his poem The Owl and the Pussycat: Edward Lear, the poet and author, is well known for his creative use of nonsense words.Here are three more examples of children’s writers who have invented nonsense words: A few weeks ago I looked at the nonsense word ‘Quidditch’ from the Harry Potter series and my last post was on Roald Dahl’s inventive use of language in The BFG. Here in Britain, we love nonsense words - our children’s literature, in particular, is full of them.
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