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!
Brilunny-Briliant and Funny! hhahahahahahhaha Have a great day and God Bless….
;>) You too.
I did create one once but I can’t remember what it was. My friend liked it though.
You’re a local star, Gail.
😏🇨🇦
Pironic — wryly amusing math. 😉
;>)
Putritics — Putrid Politics. 😀
Pisonya — an insult disguised as a pasta dish.
Ok, I’ll stop now.
This one’s my favorite, Linda.
Mine too! 😀
Goodstuff. Quite Shakespearean!
Novembruary (a season in the northeast)
Hah!
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
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).
Ha ha, so clever, I don’t have one to share right now but I love Coca-colonization 😂
Spamtacular- cooking something innovative and super-tasty with SPAM.
Isn’t “cooking something super-tasty with Spam” an oxymoron, David?
I have a chairdrobe! I didn’t realize it’s a “thing.”
You live on the cutting edge of fashion storage, Liz!
That’s news to me! 😀
Wait, you’re right, Mitch. I combined a word AND made an oxymoron!
Awezing. Awesome and amazing
“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.
I particularly like Frisbterianism, Russ. I told my wife, and she said their key doctrine focuses on preventing it by “having better aim.”
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.
Yes, I remember hearing it some years back, Ed.
“Smuckling” has such an adorable ring to it. 🙂
One word that comes to mind is Juvember. The cross between June and November….Don’t ask! LOL. Blessings and Peace.
But how…? Oh, right, ‘don’t ask.”
What are we going to do with you? LOL
I love most of these. I had pregnant brain many years ago, not it has a name, Pregnesia, I love it!
;>)
I love these and I am sure you are aware that Portmanteau is an actual word. A piece of luggage.
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.”
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.
I love it it, Ed. But they really should be called shortidiums.
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.
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*)
;>) Yes! Just the kind of punny title I like, Annie. Plus, it sounds delicious.
Memnoir! Hi Mitch. When will yours be published?
It’s slated to be published “someday.” I do plan to write a couple of memoirs, Neil (youth and adulthood). Just not sure when.
fludemic