lewis carroll and the portmanteau word

You may not find slithy and mimsy in your dictionary, but they are well known to children and adults who have read Lewis Carroll's books or who have seen an animated cartoon based on his writings. They have become staples of the English language.

In Humpty Dumpty's talk with Alice, Carroll also coined the term portmanteau word to describe such words as slithy. He called them portmanteau words because in them "two meanings are packed up into one word"—into one bag, so to speak.

Clearly, Carroll is writing for children, who are usually entranced by his stories; yet he is also writing for adults, a fact which is sometimes overlooked. His two major works, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, are read throughout the world; yet he and his work are often underappreciated; perhaps because they taken at face value, they are seen as children's stories only. Far too few adults understand that they are in the best position to comprehend Carroll's satiric hand, his insight into human nature and its foibles, and his linguistic prowess. All this from a literary master who was a professional mathematician!

To see the sort of thing that happens when you create a portmanteau word, imagine how the word slithy might have been formed in Carroll's mind when he created it:

• Deconstruct the term slimy into s, lim, and y, then discard the lim, leaving the word slimy "vacant" in the middle.
• Deconstruct lithe into lith and e, then throw away the e at the end.
• Now, put what's left back together: put lith in the vacant middle between between s and y, yielding slithy.

Now it may be easier to see the analogy between a cloak and a portmanteau word:

• The lim between the s and theyplays the part of the human torso.
• The s and theyplay the part of the left and right shoulders and arms respectively.
• When you combine the "arms" and "torso," you create a new, single "shape," the word, slithy, which is a "cloak" that masks the original two words by transforming them into a single word with a new "shape."

Slithy is a word frequently used when citing an example of a portmanteau word. Another common example of a portmanteau word is chortle, which is formed from the two words chuckle and snort. Chortle illustrates that there may not always be a clearly defined "root" like the lith in our slithy example. The way the two original words sound to the ear when combined into a new word is the guiding principle in the formation of a portmanteau word.

Notice the possibilities for enriching language afforded by portmanteau words. A portmanteau word doesn't just carry the meaning of each of the source words. The new combination:

• Adds a word to the language that expresses a new idea, one that is not quite the sum of the ideas carried by the source words that are combined into the new word.
• Provides possibilities for language enrichment that come from bringing ideas expressed by the source words together.

—navigation— james joyce and the portmanteau word To see how portmanteau words provide possibilities for language enrichment, consider the work of James Joyce. Return to the page you just came from and continue there. Select the BACK button in the menu at the top or bottom of this page.

ETAF Recommends

ETAF recommends Alice Through the Looking Glass.

Alice Through the Looking Glass is a charming made-for-TV movie that successfully combines Lewis Carroll's two Alice adventure stories into one—Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. It retains the sophistication of the original books, a quality that adults appreciate, without losing any of the childlike innocence of the originals. In other words, it's faithful to Lewis Carroll's intentions despite being a rework. It's not just for kids; it's also for adults who haven't lost the kid inside.

Many other Alice stories omit the subject of portmanteau words when they depict Alice's encounter with Humpty Dumpty; a few omit the Humpty incident altogether. Not so, this production. Perhaps because of its sophistication, it investigates the construct of the portmanteau word at length, even to the point of quoting Carroll's written passages verbatim. By the time the scene is finished, you'll not only understand what a portmanteau word is, you'll have a pretty good sense of what it's like to use portmanteau words in everyday speech.

Don't miss this film production of the allegorical Alice adventure stories, especially the Humpty Dumpty scene on the subject of portmanteau words. You won't be bored.

• Explore portmanteau words. See them in use. Learn more about this colorful, delightful 1998 movie. Visit the Alice Through the Looking Glass page at the IMDb web site. Read about the movie and see a trailer. Then see the movie: click here.

Hint: Many libraries loan this movie at no charge.