Definition of Portmanteau Words in English

Meaning of Portmanteau Words in English A portmanteau word is a word shaped by consolidating the sounds and implications of at least two different words. All the more officially known as a mix. The term portmanteau wordâ was instituted by English essayist Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871). Afterward, in the prelude to his babble poem The Hunting of the Snark (1876), Carroll offered this clarification of Humpty-Dumptys hypothesis of two implications pressed into single word like a portmanteau: [T]ake the two words raging and incensed. Decide that you will say the two words, however leave it agitated which you will say first. Presently open your mouth and talk. On the off chance that your contemplations slant little towards raging, you will say seething angry; on the off chance that they turn, by even a hairs broadness, towards enraged, you will say irate smoldering; however on the off chance that you have the rarest of blessings, an entirely adjusted brain, you will say frumious. Models and Observations: Brangelina (Brad Pitt Angelina Jolie)bromance (sibling romance)Cronutâ„ ¢ (croissant doughnut)dramedy (show comedy)Frankenfood (Frankenstein food)infomercial (data commercial)motel (engine hotel)netiquette (net etiquette)Oxbridge (Oxford Cambridge)pixel (pic element)quasar (semi heavenly star)sexpert (sex expert)sexting (sex texting)smog (smoke fog)splatter (sprinkle spatter)statusphere (status atmosphere)Tanzania (Tanganyika Zanzibar)telethon (TV marathon)Viagravation (Viagra aggravation)A word framed by intertwining components of two different words, for example, Lewis Carrolls slithy from foul and flexible. He called such structures portmanteau words, since they resembled a two-section portmanteau sack. Mixing is identified with shortening, determination, and intensifying, yet unmistakable from them all.(Tom McArthur, Blend. The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press, 1992) The Sound Bites of Modern English [D]ancercise, simulcast, Frappuccinoâ - they wear their implications on their abbreviated sleeves. Portmanteau words are the sound chomps of current English, determined to get on the first run through individuals hear them.(Geoffrey Nunberg, The Way We Talk Now. Houghton Mifflin, 2001)Smirting happens when two individuals, smoking outside, tumble to being a tease, and find that they share more for all intents and purpose than basically nicotine. In Ireland, where the term began after the boycott in 2004, there is even proof of non-smokers joining the smoky crowd outside in light of the fact that the climate there is more flirtatious.Smirting is a portmanteau word, shaped by pressing pieces of two words together to make another, consolidating the feeling of each.(Ben Macintyre, Ben Macintyre Celebrates the Portmanteau. The Times, May 2, 2008) Portmanteau Survivors:Dumbfound, Flabbergasted, Gerrymander Portmanteau words are every now and again more unusual than valuable and dont endure, however many exist. ... Dumbfound, from stupid and frustrate, was assembled in the seventeenth century. Astounded, one of the more invented, is clearly an eighteenth century mix of overweight and alarmed. Manipulate joins the name of Governor Elbridge Gerry and lizard, alluding to the state of a redistricted Massachusetts area. Anecdotage, adding the ramifications of dotage to story, and Clifton Fadimans hullabalunacy from commotion and lunacy, are sufficiently cunning to merit survival.(Robert Gorrell, Watch Your Language!: Mother Tongue and Her Wayward Children. College of Nevada Press, 1994) Portmanteau Games Two games can be played with portmanteau words. In the primary game, one player thinks about a portmanteau word and requests that the following player state which words are mixed to make it. In the subsequent game, players attempt to make up new, funny portmanteau words and give their definitions. In this way you may mix the words hen and continuance to make hendurance, which means the persistence of a hen attempting to incubate out an egg. Or on the other hand you could mix the name of the pooch Rin-tin-tin (who featured in films) and the word ring to get Rin-tin-chime: an exceptionally uproarious ringing of bells.(Tony Augarde, The Oxford beginning to end of Word Games. Oxford University Press,1994) The Lighter Side of Portmanteau Words So a blog is a web log? Is there a punctuation, or do you all not have the quality for that? You’re simply going to stick two words together?(Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, Feb. 2006)In her first tweet, [Sarah] Palin didnt compose stand up; she utilized another termâ - refudiate. A couple of moments later, the Tweet was reworked with refudiateâ - which isn't really a word -  removed,â replaced by invalidate. ...The word got someones consideration, on the grounds that a couple of hours after the fact Palin would not disprove refudiate, she tweeted that shes simply following in Shakespeares footsteps.Refudiate, misunderestimate, small weed up. English is a living language. Shakespeare got a kick out of the chance to coin new words as well. Got the opportunity to observe it!(Carolyn Kellogg, Wherefore Art Thou, Refudiate? Sarah Palin as Shakespeare. Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2010) Elocution: port-MAN-tow Otherwise called: mix