| 释义 |
▪ I. † ˈslithy, a.1 Obs.—1
? var. of sleathy a.
1622W. Whately God's Husb. ii. 116 We make no great matter of the lower degrees of sinne, and so grow slithy, and fashionable, and dead in our confessions.
▪ II. slithy, a.2|ˈslaɪðɪ|
Also † slythy.
[Presumably a blend of slimy a. and lithe a.]
A word invented by ‘Lewis Carroll’: ‘smooth and active’ (‘Carroll’, 1855, 140) and popularized esp. in phr. slithy toves from Through the Looking-Glass (1871). Also in subsequent allusive uses.
1855‘L. Carroll’ Rectory Umbrella & Mischmasch (1932) 139 Twas bryllyg and the slythy [1871: slithy] toves Did gyre and gymble in the wabe. 1920‘K. Mansfield’ Let. 27 Sept. (1928) II. 48, I watched him [sc. a lizard] come forth to-day—very slithy—and eat an ant. 1928A. S. Eddington Nature of Physical World xiii. 291 Eight slithy toves gyre and gimble in the oxygen wabe; seven in nitrogen. 1937G. Frankau More of Us 2 While the free-versifier gyres and gimbles The slithy tove—with his own ‘private symbols’. 1960H. Marchand Categories x. 368 Lewis Carroll's slithy.., chortle..have become common property. Shakespeare's glaze (f. glare and gaze) has not. 1981Time Out 20–26 Mar. 54/1 Pity the slithy toves of academe. |