Portmanteau Word

Don't you just love Portmanteau words?

Portmanteau words are those made up words you get when you SmashWordsTogetherLikeSo so damn hard that some letters fall off the start of one and off the end of the other.

Note - these are also called Frankenwords. What an excellent frankenword the word 'frankenword' is.

Here are more examples:

some from http://ladybug.xs4all.nl/arlet/

The JargonFile has these portmanteau:

LewisCarroll's poem "Jabberwocky" (see below) has these 'Portmanteau' words:

Three portmanteau words used to describe TV and film:

One portmanteau word made from three portmanteau words (a new Olympic record?):

Challenged:

These words were put together a long time ago, in the usual way. The whole and parts were modernized separately, which is why it's sheriff instead of shirereeve, but I doubt that makes it a portmanteau word. These, like acronyms, seem to be a very recent way to make new words, absent from most historical development of languages. It would be interesting to know what contributed to their creation and adoption.

This site helps you create your own: http://www.megabrands.com/carroll/faq5.html

A postmodern poem incorporating lots of portmanteaus: http://www.cltr.uq.edu.au/languagetalkback/Current/Nunberg-poem.html

For discussion relating to use of the words "morphaword' and "frankenword" as synonyms/replacements for "portmanteau", see MorphaWord.

According to 'THE DICTIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE BY E. COBHAM BREWER FROM THE NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION OF 1894', this definition of Portmanteau word is given: Portmanteau Word (A). A word, like post, which contains several meanings packed together; as, post (a stake), post for letters, post paper, slow as a post, fast as a post, post-horses, and so on. (see http://www.bootlegbooks.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable/data/999.html)

This doesn't seem to be the current meaning of PortmanteauWord at all! I wonder if what Mr Brewer wrote was true at the time - maybe it was used in that sense at the time.

In 1872 LewisCarroll used the term in its current sense in ThroughTheLookingGlass to describe his poem "Jabberwocky" (see: http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/jabber/jabberwocky.html).

My friends in college were always amused by my ability to accidentally create Portmanteau words when speaking passionately about a (usually trivial) subject. I'm most proud of:

-- JoeWeaver

Slithey, outgrabe, similk and sorth. Postprandialate a full belly and nice buttlegundy . Um, bottle of burgundy. What, no bogundy?!? --WikiArtCritic.

See MemorableRandomStrings

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