nonsense

one of ramona's favorite books right now is "the owl and the pussycat" with text from 1871 by Edward Lear, and illustrations from 1991 by Jan Brett. it really is a lovely little book about a love affair, sea adventure, and wedding of an owl and a pussycat.

how cute are these two? when ramona sees this picture, she points and says "happy." true, little lady. very true.
but here's what gets me. these lines:

they dined on mince
and slices of quince
which they ate with a runcible spoon.

there are a few things here that...ummm....well, what is mince, exactly? and i've never eaten a quince, so really, what is that? where does it grow? and a runcible spoon? what is going on, mr. lear? just 19th century british hoo ha?

well, google has cleared up the details of mince, and provided me with some nice images of quince. but the big surprise? runcible is a made-up nonsense word, coined first for this very poem. i love nonsense words (see:lewis carroll's "the jabberwocky").

well done, mr. lear. how very runcible of you. i'm working that word in everywhere these days.