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what's a portmanteau word?
A portmanteau word is a single word produced by joining parts
of two
or more words and combining their meanings, spellings, and sounds. The new
portmanteau word is a mixture or blend of each of the original words;
it possesses a unique meaning that's different
from but related to the meaning of each of the words that comprise it.
Another definition for portmanteau word is blend. Blend
carries the idea that the sounds, spellings, and meanings of two or more
different words have been blended or merged to form a single new word
with a unique new meaning that's not exactly the same as the meaning
of any of the words it combines.
Although a portmanteau word's meaning is different from the meaning of
each of the words it combines, its new meaning relates to each of the
combined words, and it expresses something new and different about
them. For example, brunch is a portmanteau word that blends the
words breakfast and lunch. A brunch is neither a
breakfast nor a lunch; it's a single meal that serves as
both breakfast and lunch. Brunch is spelled with a combination
of the letters that spell breakfast and lunch and it
sounds like both words when pronounced.
Origin—Lewis Caroll
Lewis Carroll is the originator of the concept of the portmanteau word
and, as such, was the first to use one in print. He also invented the
term portmanteau word
itself.
As examples of portmanteau words, we'll examine two
portmanteau words devised by Lewis Carroll, the words slithy and
mimsy. These kinds of words first appear in the English language in
Carroll's imaginative adventure story, Through the Looking Glass.
In the book, Humpty Dumpty, talking to Alice, clears up her
confusion over words she has read in a poem called Jabberwocky (also by
Carroll). Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice that slithy combines two previously
existing English words, slimy and lithe. Mimsy combines miserable and
flimsy.
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About the word Portmanteau
A portmanteau is a large
leather suitcase that opens into two hinged compartments. It's a case or bag
to carry clothing in while traveling, especially a leather
trunk or suitcase that opens into two halves.
Chiefly, the term is used by the British, who
borrowed it from the French word portemanteau, which is derived
from porte, meaning to carry, and manteau,
meaning cloak or mantle, a loose outer garment.
Literally, it means It carries
the cloak. It's a bag that's large enough to carry a
cloak.
The anglicized term
portmanteau is a single word formed by merging the sounds and
meanings of two different French words (porte, manteau).
Neverhteless, portmanteau is not itself a portmanteau word;
it is a
single word formed by placing the French equivalents
for two English words (carry, cloak) next to each other.
more
about portmanteau words
The term portmanteau word is borrowed from the English word
portmanteau. Despite this fact, the word portmanteau is not itself a
portmanteau word. Why? Because, to be a portmanteau
word, a word must have been created by combining two other words to
form a single word in a special way. The new word that emerges must be a word that is not
merely the two original words stuck together side-by-side
(concatenated); and the new word must mean something different from either of
the original words taken alone or both taken together.
Here's an example of a true portmanteau word:
chortle. Chortle is a combination of chuckle and snort.
Although chortle is composed of chuckle and snort, a
chortle is neither a chuckle nor a snort. And the word isn't formed by
placing chuckle and snort side-by-side; if it were, it
would be chucklesnort.
Here's where the idea of a "mantle" comes in. Forming the new
(portmanteau) word from two other words, neither of which means what
the new word means, is like placing a cloak around a person's two
shoulders; that is, it covers or hides the two original words while
forming (bringing close together) the two words to form a new word that "carries" a new meaning.
Blends and portmanteau words
Portmanteau words are a kind of linguistic construct called a
blend. A blend is a word made by putting together parts of other
words, such as motel, which is made up of motor and
hotel, brunch, which is made up of breakfast and
lunch, or guesstimate, which is made up of guess
and estimate.
A blend is a word formed from parts of two or more other words. The
parts are almost always morphemes.
More examples of blends:
- bash from bang and smash
- clash, from clack and crash
- geep, which is an offspring of goat and sheep.
- motorcade from motor and cavalcade
- dormobiles from dormitory automobiles
- slurbs from slum and suburbs
- travelogue from travel and monologue
- telegram from cable and cablegram
- avionics from aviation and electronics
- bionics from biology and electronics
- nucleonics from nuclear and electronics
- bit from binary unit and bit
- quasar from quasistellar and star
- pulsar from pulsating and star
Notice that not all blends are portmanteau words. A portmanteau word is not just two words arbitrarily stuck together:
it is a new word created when parts of two other words are elided and
other parts are scrapped.
But there's more to a portmanteau word than just combining and
deleting parts of words. A portmanteau word usually exhibits these
characteristics. It:
- Is not simply a combination of its constituent words, one linked to the other
like a chain.
- Is a new word in its own right with a new meaning all its own, not simply
the meaning that comes from adding one of the other words to the other.
Parts of the original words that make a portmanteau word are lost when
the original words are combined into the new word.
- Is usually a clever construction that is amusing, insightful, or enlightening.
- Adds value to the English language. Not only is it a new word in the English lexicon; it might add
a novel idea that never before found expression or a new way of expressing
something that would be harder or clumsier to express otherwise.
- It must sound "right." As Shakespeare said, "It falls trippingly from
the tongue."
Breaking down a portmanteau word into its constituent words provides a
key to understanding the word's meaning and its origin.
the Portmanteau word raised to a fine art—About
James Joyce
At first, there may not seem to be much to the
portmanteau word. Words like bit and bash are simple beasties, after all. But then
came the great Irish novelist, James Joyce. Joyce coined this
portmanteau word:
Bothallchoractorschumminaroundgansummuminarrumdrumstrumtruminahumptadumpwaultopoofoolooderamaunsturnup!
We'll use this portmanteau coinage to look deeper into the complexities of
portmanteau words.
Undoubtedly, James Joyce is a master of the
English portmanteau word. One of his masterpieces, Finnegan's Wake, contains tens of
thousands of them, including ten so-called thunderclaps, each one a
hundred letters long.
Thunderclaps symbolize a number of things, including the fateful fall from
the ladder of the eponymous Irish hod carrier Tim Finnegan, and the Irish wake
which is celebrated in the novel.
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