May. 7th, 2007

bnewman: (Default)
From The Annotated Alice, by Lewis Carroll with notes by Martin Gardner:
"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"34

34A species of arctic duck that winters in northern Scotland is called the calloo after its evening call, "Calloo! Calloo!"

More likely, as readers Albert L. Blackwell and Mrs. Carlton S. Hyman each pointed out, Carroll had in mind two forms of a Greek word, kalos [καλος], meaning beautiful, good or fair. They would be pronounced as Carroll spells them, and would fit well the meaning of the line.

That's what I thought. And, yes, it was a frabjous day.

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bnewman: (Default)Ben Newman

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