By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Portmanteau
A portmanteau is a suitcase that opens into two compartments, from the French “port,” to carry and manteaux, a kind of mantle or cloak. It is also a type of word made up of two words combined to make a new meaning. Portmanteau is itself a portmanteau word. Lewis Carol coined the term for some of the creative words he invented in “Through the Looking Glass,” like “chortle,” a combination of chuckle and snort.
Portmanteau words evolve to reflect cultural trends like bromance (brother/ romance), frenemy (friend/enemy) or hangry (hungry/angry). Eventually the new words may enter the language and the origin may be forgotten. “Brunch” is a fairly obvious blend of breakfast and lunch, but “smog” is a combination of smoke and fog that didn’t exist until air pollution became a recognized problem.
Other words that you may not realize are portmanteau words are “motel,” a combination of motor and hotel and “modem,” named for a modulator and demodulator, the two devices used to send and receive data.
Other portmanteau words include: emoticon (emotion/icon), Bollywood (Bombay/Hollywood), cineplex (cinema/complex), bionic (biology/electronic), cyborg (cybernetic/organism), electrocution (electricity/execution), pixel (picture/element) and internet (international/network). Glamping is a new compound word made from “glamour” and “camping” to describe those who prefer to hike into the wilderness with all the comforts of home like soft carpets and gourmet food.
Got some free time? Pack your portmanteau words, chillax, grab a frogurt and enjoy a glamping trip or staycation.
