Galumphing...

This is one of Lewis Carroll's "portmanteau word," packing together two meanings, in this case gallop and triumphant creating an irregular, exultant march. In my home galumphing can be accomplished only by small children and puppies, particularly puppies. It suggests less a triumphant march than a bounding, joyful, and akward movement, best seen in the unabashed running, jumping, and falling of very young creatures. My parents say it frequently, suggesting that like Humpty Dumpty words mean what they want them to. Which shouldn't come as a suprise to me, since I grew up in a home where my mother altered the proverb to read "Do as I Mean, Not As I Say."