Portmanteau. Yeah, I know, you’re thinking, “I was there once! It’s on the French Riviera, right?” Sorry, Jacques, non. A portmanteau is a new word created by mashing together two (or more) pre-existing words.
For example, I’m going to write a dark, mysterious account of my early life, so I’m thinking of calling it a memnoir* (memoir + noir [dark]). It will begin something like, “Moonlight streamed in through louvered blinds on the night I was born…”
Other examples:
- Coca-colonization (Coca-Cola + colonization): The influence of American consumerization on other cultures.
- craptacular (crap + spectacular): Something so bad it’s epic.
- docusoapery (documentary + soap opera): A “true life” drama that emphasizes big emotional moments (e.g. The Bachelor and it’s sundry airheaded offspring).
- flexitarian (flexible + vegetarian): A vegetarian who fudges a lot.
- glamping (glamour + camping): Roughing-it in style.
- irregardless (irrespective + regardless–unintentionally): Do. Not. Use. This.
- kidlife crisis (kid + midlife crisis): If you’re a parent, you know what it means.
- laughticating* (laughing with mouth open while masticating [oh, grow up, it means chewing]): Avoid doing this at restaurants with linen tablecloths. Smile-chuckling (smuckling*) while chewing with mouth closed is allowed.
- meld (melt + weld): A term invented by Vulcan welders.
- nicety (nice + nasty): We’ve all done it, now it has a name.
- Nintendinitis (Nintendo + tendonitis): Incurable.
- pregnesia (pregnancy + amnesia): “I have no idea how this happened.”
- sci-five (sci-fi + high five): For particularly nerdtastic moments during sci-fi movies.
- screenager (screen + teenager): Adolescent who is seriously deficient in melanin.
- spork (spoon + fork): A term simultaneously invented by nearly everyone the moment Kentucky Fried Chicken introduced these toothy little spoons (spooths?*).
- tomacco (tomato + tobacco): A tomato plant grafted onto the roots of a tobacco plant. Principal ingredient of the Italian dish nicotini.*
- turducken (turkey + duck + chicken): A dish consisting of a de-boned chicken stuffed into a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed into a de-boned turkey. But why?
*Look, I coined a portmanteau!
Mitch Teemley 
Brilunny-Briliant and Funny! hhahahahahahhaha Have a great day and God Bless….
LikeLiked by 6 people
;>) You too.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I did create one once but I can’t remember what it was. My friend liked it though.
LikeLiked by 3 people
You’re a local star, Gail.
LikeLiked by 1 person
😏🇨🇦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pironic — wryly amusing math. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
;>)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Putritics — Putrid Politics. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pisonya — an insult disguised as a pasta dish.
Ok, I’ll stop now.
LikeLiked by 2 people
This one’s my favorite, Linda.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mine too! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Goodstuff. Quite Shakespearean!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Novembruary (a season in the northeast)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hah!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fun! I was gonna add one of my own, but I think by the time this post makes its rounds, you’ll have had your fill… lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very interesting! Took me back to my French classes.
My faves from the list are ‘nonversation’ and ‘chairdrobe’…so relatable.
A common portmanteau example would be Brunch (breakfast+lunch).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha, so clever, I don’t have one to share right now but I love Coca-colonization 😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Spamtacular- cooking something innovative and super-tasty with SPAM.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Isn’t “cooking something super-tasty with Spam” an oxymoron, David?
LikeLiked by 2 people
I have a chairdrobe! I didn’t realize it’s a “thing.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
You live on the cutting edge of fashion storage, Liz!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s news to me! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wait, you’re right, Mitch. I combined a word AND made an oxymoron!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awezing. Awesome and amazing
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Sportember.” The month we experienced which included the NBA, NFL, MLB, WNBA, MLS, the Kentucky Derby, and (surely) some NASCAR races.
Or how about “Prowloween.” The night when you sneak around begging for candy from your neighbors.
Or my favorite (actually invented by a friend), “Frisbeterianism.” The religion that believes that when you die, your soul flies up and gets stuck on the roof.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I particularly like Frisbterianism, Russ. I told my wife, and she said their key doctrine focuses on preventing it by “having better aim.”
LikeLike
Ha! Frisbeterianism! Did you ever hear Buddy Greene’s “Denomination Blues”? He includes Frisbeterianism. Look it up on YouTube. You’ll love it, I’m sure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I remember hearing it some years back, Ed.
LikeLike
“Smuckling” has such an adorable ring to it. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
One word that comes to mind is Juvember. The cross between June and November….Don’t ask! LOL. Blessings and Peace.
LikeLiked by 1 person
But how…? Oh, right, ‘don’t ask.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
What are we going to do with you? LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love most of these. I had pregnant brain many years ago, not it has a name, Pregnesia, I love it!
LikeLiked by 2 people
;>)
LikeLike
I love these and I am sure you are aware that Portmanteau is an actual word. A piece of luggage.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep. Lewis Carroll made up this second meaning by having Humpty Dumpty tells Alice in Wonderland, “t’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love ’em. This reminds me of something some friends and I used to do – shortened idioms. For example, “sandaldust,” “duckwater,” “kettleblack”…. you get the idea.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love it it, Ed. But they really should be called shortidiums.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have a portmanteau preposition for blank verse by a lonely lover:
It’s been a long bleak time
since last I felt U being
happy
underbyalongsidewith
me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I bought some muenster cheese yesterday and quipped that I could shred it, make some mashed potatoes and fold in the cheese until it melts. Yum! Just in time for Halloween – the Muenster Mash! (*eye roll*)
LikeLiked by 1 person
;>) Yes! Just the kind of punny title I like, Annie. Plus, it sounds delicious.
LikeLike
Memnoir! Hi Mitch. When will yours be published?
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s slated to be published “someday.” I do plan to write a couple of memoirs, Neil (youth and adulthood). Just not sure when.
LikeLike
fludemic
LikeLiked by 1 person