'There's glory for you!'
'I don't know what you mean by "glory,"' Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. 'Of course you don't -- till I
tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'
'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument,"' Alice objected.
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone,
'it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you CAN make words mean so
many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - - that's
all.'
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty
Dumpty began again.
'They've a temper, some of them -- particularly verbs, they're the
proudest -- adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs -- however,
I can manage the whole of them!
Impenetrability! That's what I say!'
'Would you tell me, please,' said Alice 'what that means?'
'Now you talk like a reasonable child,' said Humpty Dumpty, looking
very much pleased. 'I meant by "impenetrability" that we've had enough
of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what
you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the
rest of your life.'
'That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a thoughtful
tone.
'When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty
Dumpty, 'I always pay it extra.'
'Oh!' said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark.
'Ah, you should see 'em come round me of a Saturday night,' Humpty
Dumpty went on, wagging his head gravely from side to side: 'for to
get their wages, you know.'
(Alice didn't venture to ask what he paid them with; and so you see
I can't tell YOU.)
