Lewis Carroll

[Julian.West@mac.dartmouth.edu]

Yesterday, someone claimed that "The Annotated Alice" left
the origins of the word "vorpal" in doubt. I checked my
copy (everyone has a copy, right?) last night, and it does
not. Gardner writes, and I paraphrase:

"so-and-so, in his book such-and-such, shows how to obtain
'vorpal' from alternate letters of 'verbal' and 'gospel',
but there is no evidence that Carroll resorted to such
contrivances _for_his_coinages_. In fact, some-kid-or-other
asked him about 'vorpal' and he wrote 'I can't explain that
one to you." [emphasis mine]

I think this makes it clear that the word was coined for
_Jabberwocky_.

I also checked _Chambers_ (1983) last night, and again I
paraphrase:

_vorpal_: A word coined by Lewis Carroll to describe a
  sword; now used to mean 'sharp edged'

I'd be a little surprised if this isn't also in the 
second edition of the OED.

Julian