The Mikado, "Gilbert's Made-up Word and Nonsense Verses"

Gilbert's Made-up Words and Nonsense Verses

As part of his play with language, rhyme, and meter, Gilbert made up words as he needed them, and (as with "snickersnee") used words nonsensically because he liked the sound or because they rhymed amusingly.

Among his made-up words are ablutioner, diminutioner, decapited, and Mikado-wards.

ablutioner

The word "ablutioner" doesn't appear in the OED, so Gilbert is playing his usual games making extravagant rhymes. The word "ablution," though, has a long history, associated mostly with the act of washing and purifying in religious and mystical contexts. Pooh-Bah uses it here (not only for the rhyme) but because he just loves big words.

diminutioner

As with "ablutioner," "diminutioner" isn't listed in the OED. This is another example of Pooh-Bah's pomposity and love of really big words that no normal person would ever use and an example of Gilbert's sense of fun. "Diminution" is lessening, reduction.

decapited

Obviously, decapited is in there instead of decapitated because it fits the rhythm of the lines better, and because it's funny. Using it would sort of be like using a word like un-headed.

Mikado-wards

My favorite rhyme in the libretto.

Verses That Don't Make Any Sense

To me, this verse of Ko-Ko's in "With aspect stern and gloomy stride" (Act I), doesn't make a lot of sense, at least certainly not easily:

Literally, Ko-Ko is saying that he could not let Yum-Yum marry somebody else ("yield her") or arrange for her to marry somebody else ("or her allot") unless he cared about himself more. He's saying that the reason he can let her go is because he loves himself so much. So it makes literal sense if one analyzes the sentence, but I think it's not easy to grasp -- especially the "Or her allot" -- and the audience generally just sort of goes along with the line instead of really trying to follow every word. It's there for the rhyme and meter.

The trio "I am so proud" has several places where, for the sake of the rhymes and the comedy, Gilbert plays fast and loose with sense and literal meaning. For example, "cheap and chippy chopper" must really be "cheap and chipped chopper," but this is the least of them. Ko-Ko has two nonsense verses in "I am so proud" (Act I), at least to me they're nonsense:

To me, as with the "Or her allot," the sentence makes sense only under scrutiny and is hard to comprehend aurally. Ko-Ko is saying that if he runs away, the benefit that he would spread around ("diffuse") would be lost to Titipu. "Diffuse"? There for the rhyme and meter and nothing else.

The second one is this one:

Something like, "And so, although, I'm ready to go, remember that it would be disrespectful if I were to neglect to cause therefore this goal to be met, so I object." Or something like that. "Recollect," "disrespect," "neglect," "effect," and "direct" all in a row like that, in two-beat lines, is good, but the sense suffers.

Peep-Bo also has a line I have difficulty understanding. Just before the Madrigal in Act II, she says of Yum-Yum, "she is indeed to be envied who has attained happiness in all but perfection." The libretto suggests that Yum-Yum disagrees with Peep-Bo's assessment of her happiness and that she has in fact attained happiness in perfection as well as everything else, I guess, but I always think, "'in all but perfection'? what?" The line probably means nothing more than that Yum-Yum is happy but not perfectly happy, but I'm not sure.

This discussion is based on the definitions of the words diminution, ablution, and so on in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which requires a little explanation.

To Act I or Act II of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

To the homepage of this Mikado website.

Suggestions, contributions, criticisms, questions? Email Sharon Cogdill.

College of Fine Arts and Humanities

St. Cloud State University

This URL: http://web.stcloudstate.edu/scogdill/mikado/neologisms.html.

Last update: 19 May 1998.