"And "the wabe' is the grass plot round a sundial, I suppose?" said Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity.

"Of course it is. It's called "wabe,' you know because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it --"

"And a long way beyond it on each side," Alice added.

"Exactly so."

By Lewis Carroll
from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872