Portmanteau words are formed by blending two words together, like “smog” from smoke and fog. They’re named after a joke in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass.” Examples include Brangelina, Oxbridge, and blog.
Portmanteau words, also called blended words or simply portmanteaux, are words that are formed by blending or blending two other words together. The term portmanteau word comes from chapter six of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, in which the character Humpty Dumpty, in explaining the meaning of the word slithy in the poem “Jabberwocky,” says, “Well, slithy means.” flexible and slimy”. Lithe is the same as “active”. You see, it’s like a suitcase: there are two meanings packed into one word.” This is a double joke: firstly, a trunk is a suitcase, in which things are “packed”, such as the multiple meanings within the portmanteau words; second, portmanteau itself is a compound word, similar to the words portmanteau, in that it derives from the French words for “carry” – porter – and “cloak” – manteau.
Portmanteau words have been invented for many different areas of life:
Entertainment
Bombay + Hollywood = Bollywood
Brad (Pitt) + Angelina (Jolie) = Brangelina
cyberspace + magazine = cyberzine
education + entertainment = edutainment
fan + magazine = fanzine
glitter + lettered = glittered
Locations
Channel + Tunnel = Channel
Oxford + Cambridge = Oxbridge
Nord (the) + Little Italy = NoLIta (area of New York City)
South (di) + Houston (Street) = SoHo (area di New York City)
Triangle + Below + Channel (Street) = TriBeCa (New York City area)
Tempo
smoke + fog = smog
Events
talk + maratona = talkathon
phone + marathon = telethon
Public entities
doctor + assistance = Medicare
parachute + troops = paratroopers
feeding
beef + buffalo = beefalo
breakfast + lunch = brunch
clam + tomato = Clamato
plum + apricot = pluot
mandarin + pomelo = tangelo
place
café + auditorium = café
motor + hotel = motel
Adjective
gigantic + huge = gigantic
man + awesome = awesome
Technological equipment
camera + recorder = camcorder
breath + analyzer = breathalyzer
Use of the Internet
Many words related to blogging and other uses of modern technology are portmanteau words:
web + log = blog
iPod + broadcasting = podcasting
blog + broadcast = blogcast
blog + spam advertising (or) marketing = blam
blog + beg (for contributions) = bleg
blog + biosphere = blogosphere
fake + blog = flogo
mobile (generated) + blog = moblog
fodder + video (on the Internet) = vorage
school (friends) + Google = Schoogle
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