Ever stopped at a motel for brunch? Or perhaps for a portmanteau or two? These are words, like motel and brunch, formed by mixing two other terms. Some are common in speech and writing, so you may have used them without realising they were portmanteaus. But you can also use portmanteaus creatively. So how do these words work?
As mentioned above, a portmanteau is a word made up of two words. We can see this if we look more closely at the examples above: motel and brunch.
As a combination of ‘motor’ and ‘hotel’, ‘motels’ are small hotels for motorists located near roads and highways. And with ‘brunch’, we have a combination of ‘breakfast’ and ‘lunch’, denoting a meal after breakfast but before lunch.
Contractions also combine two words, but only words that would ordinarily appear in sequence, such as how ‘do not’ becomes ‘don’t’. And, importantly, you don’t need an apostrophe to show where words join in a portmanteau. Contractions and portmanteaus are therefore quite different.
Interestingly, ‘portmanteau’ is itself a portmanteau! In the 19th century, a portmanteau was a suitcase with two equal parts. Its name came from combining the French words porter, meaning ‘carry’, and manteau, meaning ‘cloak’, as these cases were used for carrying clothes while travelling.
Its modern sense of a word made up of two words came from children’s author Lewis Carroll. In the novel Through the Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty’s character explains two portmanteaus:
Well, ‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’ and ‘mimsy’ is ‘flimsy and miserable’. You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.
So a ‘portmanteau’ is like a suitcase packed with two words!
Portmanteaus are a great way to get creative with language. We’ve already seen Lewis Carroll’s explanation of ‘slithy’ and ‘mimsy’, which were terms he invented for his famous poem ‘Jabberwocky’.
The key is picking two words that sound good together and combining their meanings to create something new. Why not give it a go in your writing?
Finally, let’s look at some words you may or may not know are portmanteaus:
Portmanteau
Words Combined
Meaning
Spork
Spoon + Fork
A utensil that you can use as a spoon or fork.
Dumbfounded
Dumb + Confounded
To be struck speechless with surprise or confusion.
Infotainment
Information + Entertainment
Material that intends to both entertain and inform.
Emoticon
Emotion + Icon
The use of punctuation marks and other characters to depict an emotion, e.g. a smiley.
🙂
Podcast
iPod + Broadcast
A digital audio broadcasting format first popularised via the iPod media player.
Internet
International + Network
A network of interconnected computers.
Smog
Smoke + Fog
Fog mixed with smoke or other pollutants.
Brexit
Britain + Exit
The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
Jazzercise
Jazz + Exercise
A combination of jazz dance and exercise.
Pokémon
Pocket + Monsters
A stylised play on the Japanese brand name ‘Pocket Monsters’.
And however you use portmanteaus in your writing, we have expert editors available to help you ensure your documents are always error free!
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