portmanteau word

portmanteau word

A word that is formed by combining syllables from several other words. Each part of the portmanteau word typically retains its original meaning; in combination, then, they give the portmanteau word its unique meaning. For instance, a "dramedy" (a work that is both dramatic and funny) is a portmanteau word combining "drama" and "comedy." Did you know that "brunch" is just a portmanteau word created from "breakfast" and "lunch"? It seems like every famous couple in Hollywood has a portmanteau word that combines their two names.
See also: word
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • false friend
  • word for word
  • word by word
  • from the word go
  • filthy
  • filthy lucre
  • have word (from someone or something)
  • the F-word
  • F-word
  • get word (from someone or something)
References in periodicals archive
In his essay on the portmanteau word in Finnegans Wake, Derek Attridge claims that there is no method for deciding at what point the connections between the new word and its possible components become too slight to be relevant (Attridge 149).
Wordplay and the contextual circle in Queneau's Petite Cosmogonie Portative
Wacky spellings, portmanteau words and inexplicable suffixes like 'ify' or 'sy' (think Spotify and Huntsy) abound in the quest to find an unclaimed URL.
Why name is so important?
As in Through the Looking Glass this poem contains Carroll's trademark portmanteau words, those with 'two meanings packed into one word'.
The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony, in Eight Fits
Some new words in the dictionary could make many traditionalists cringe in their seats-new portmanteau words purporting to describe a new trend include "staycation" (a combination of stay and vacation, meaning to take a holiday without going abroad) and "glamping" (glamorous camping).
'Twittering', 'hmm', and 'heh' make it to Collins English Dictionary
Colourful portmanteau words are cleverly imitated, as in 'phosfreezing' for Corra's 'fosfreddissimo' (pp.
Italian Futurist Poetry
I was so sleepy I would write portmanteau words, which collapsed the syllables of two or three words I'd already sounded in my head.
Keys to the kingdom of Edmund
He deftly employs impressionistic portmanteau words and a quick, rhythmical narrative style to texture powerfully a world as seen through his young Chicano protagonist's eyes.
Manuel Luis Martinez. Drift
Portmanteau words are ever the business of such undertakings, and the author has his basket full of them.
Shakespeare and the Authority of Performance
His strange polyglot idiom of puns and portmanteau words is intended to convey not only the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious but also the interweaving of Irish language and mythology with the languages and mythologies of many other cultures.
Finnegans Wake
Joyce uses an elaborate language of his own devising, made up of puns, portmanteau words, and words from foreign languages, with endless philological variations.
Finnegans Wake
So we are looking forward to other pointless portmanteau words (would those be pointmantless words?) combining synonyms.
The Spin
We invent portmanteau words, like motel for motor hotel and brunch for combined breakfast and lunch.
Why English rules the world; PETER DUTTON on why our language left its rivals in the dust - despite its many idiosyncrasies
He called these inventions portmanteau words because he loved to scrunch two words into one as clothes are crammed into a portmanteau, or traveling bag.
The Word Magic of Lewis Carroll
I never knew this exercise in meaninglessness had a name until a friend sent me the results of a contest on portmanteau words. In November of 2009, The Style Invitational section of the Washington Post held a contest inviting readers to send in portmanteau words (starting with A-D) with definitions.
Another Washinton Post Style Invitational
Eric Harshbarger comments on portmanteau words (invented by Lewis Carroll) for celebrities like "Bennifer" for Ben Affieck and Jennifer Lopez.
Colloquy