Dictionary Definition
portmanteau
Noun
1 a new word formed by joining two others and
combining their meanings; "`smog' is a blend of `smoke' and `fog'";
"`motel' is a portmanteau word made by combining `motor' and
`hotel'"; "`brunch' is a well-known portmanteau" [syn: blend, portmanteau
word]
2 a large travelling bag made of stiff leather
[syn: Gladstone,
Gladstone
bag] [also: portmanteaux (pl)]
User Contributed Dictionary
Etymology
From portemanteau, literally porte + manteauPronunciation
- a RP /pɔːtˈmæn.təʊ/, /pO:t"m
Extensive Definition
In some linguistics fields, and also
to an extent in common usage, a portmanteau word (sometimes just
portmanteau) is a term used to describe a word which fuses two or
more function
words.
Meaning
"Portmanteau word" is used to describe a linguistic blend, namely "a word formed by blending sounds from two or more distinct words and combining their meanings".Such a definition of
"portmanteau word" overlaps with the grammatical term contraction,
and linguists avoid using the former term in such cases. As an
example: the words do + not become the contraction don't, a single
word which represents the meaning of the combined
words.
A humorous synonym for
"portmanteau word" is "frankenword", itself a portmanteau word,
blending "Frankenstein" and "word".
Origin
The usage of the word 'portmanteau' in this sense first appeared in Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass (1871), in which Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in Jabberwocky:- "‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’... You see it's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word"
- "‘Mimsy’ is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there's another portmanteau ... for you)".
"Wikipedia" is
itself an example of a portmanteau word because it combines the
word "wiki" and "encyclopedia."
Portmanteau words may be
produced by conjoining proper names with common nouns, such as
"Gerrymandering"
which refers to the scheme of Massachusetts Governor Elbridge
Gerry for politically contrived redistricting: the districts
created had the semblance of a salamander in outline.
Portmanteau words involving proper names are sometimes used to
produce epithets such "Billary" (referring to former United States
president Bill Clinton
and Hillary
Rodham Clinton). Here, the purpose for blending is not so much
to combine the meanings of the source words but "to suggest a
resemblance of one named person to the other" and the effect is
often derogatory, as linguist Benjamin
Zimmer notes.
Subsequent to the Watergate
Scandal, it became popular to attach the suffix "-gate" to
other words to describe contemporary scandals, e.g. "Filegate" for
the
White House FBI files controversy.
Portmanteau words can used to
describe bilingual speakers who use words from both languages while
speaking. For instance a person would be considered speaking
"Spanglish" if
they are using both Spanish and English words at the same
time.
The suffix "-holism" or
"-holic", taken from the word "Alcoholism" or
"alcoholic", can be added to a noun, creating a word that describes
an addiction to that noun. Chocoholic, for
example, means a person who is addicted to chocolate.
Use with Supercouples
One of the most prevalent
current examples of portmanteau words is in the characterizations
of Supercouples.
These exist both for real-life couples as well as fictional ones.
The portmanteau word "Brangelina" has
become highly identified with the real-life partnership of actors
Brad
Pitt and Angelina
Jolie. Likewise, "TomKat", a homonym for tomcat, is a a portmanteau for
the couple Katie Holmes
and Tom
Cruise.
The use of portmanteau words
in the world of Soap Operas
can indicate not only the Supercouple, but the speaker's opinion of
them. For example, fans unhappy with the General
Hospital pairing of character Sonny and
Emily
coined the portmanteau word "Soily."
References
portmanteau in Bosnian:
Portmanteau
portmanteau in Danish:
Portmanteau
portmanteau in German:
Kofferwort
portmanteau in Spanish:
Portmanteau
portmanteau in Esperanto:
Kofrovorto
portmanteau in French:
Mot-valise
portmanteau in Indonesian:
Portmanteau
portmanteau in Italian:
Parola macedonia
portmanteau in Hebrew: הלחם
בסיסים
portmanteau in Latin:
Portmanteau
portmanteau in Hungarian:
Szóösszerántás
portmanteau in Dutch:
Portmanteau
portmanteau in Japanese:
かばん語
portmanteau in Norwegian:
Teleskopord
portmanteau in Polish:
Kontaminacja (językoznawstwo)
portmanteau in Portuguese:
Palavra-valise
portmanteau in Romanian:
Cuvânt telescopat
portmanteau in Swedish:
Teleskopord
portmanteau in Chinese:
混成詞