From Through the Looking Glass we have:
Humpty Dumpty took the book, and looked at it carefully.
'That seems to be done right--' he began.
'You're holding it upside down!' Alice interrupted.
'To be sure I was!' Humpty Dumpty said gaily, as she turned
it round for him. 'I thought it looked a little queer. As I was saying, that
SEEMS to be done right--though I haven't time to look it over
thoroughly just now--and that shows that there are three
hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents--'
'Certainly,' said Alice.
'And only ONE for birthday presents, you know. 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 lot 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.'
That is what they mean. Welcome to Washington!
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