frumious

Frumious is a portmanteau word coined by Lewis Carroll in his 1871 nonsense poem "Jabberwocky," published in the book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. The word appears in the opening lines of the poem: "'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe". Carroll himself provided a gloss for some of the words in "Jabberwocky" in the preface to The Hunting of the Snark, which was published later. He explained that "frumious" is a combination of "fuming" and "furious."

While the exact meaning is left to the reader's imagination, the etymology provided by Carroll suggests a creature or state that is both angry and emitting smoke or vapor. This contributes to the overall surreal and nonsensical atmosphere of the poem, characteristic of Carroll's literary style. The word has since entered popular culture as an example of creative wordplay and neologisms. Its use often evokes a sense of chaotic or intense emotion, tinged with a whimsical absurdity. Despite its invented origin, "frumious" has gained a degree of recognition and is sometimes used to describe something ferociously or ridiculously angry.