Questions tagged [portmanteau-words]
A portmanteau is a word which is formed by combining two (or occasionally more) other words together.
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How did barista enter the English language?
The Italian term barista (bartender) entered the English language in 1992 and its usage has considerably increased since then according to Google Books:
"bartender in a coffee shop," as a ...
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Rules regarding a portmanteau that includes an initialism [closed]
Are there rules for creating a portmanteau using an initialism and part of a word?
Examples:
ATM + empathy = ATMpathy
SOS + espionage = SOSpionage
Are there existing examples of this? Should they ...
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What is it called when a speaker accidentally merges two words?
There is a word to describe the action of accidentally mixing two words together, such as exclaiming trampede when struggling to explain what cattle do. The speaker tries to say one thing, but a ...
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Is a "camelopard" part-camel, part-leopard or part-camel, part-pard?
I'm honestly not sure if this belongs more on Mythology.SE, but I think it's (just) more of an etymology question.
The English word 'giraffe' derives from the Arabic word zarāfah (زرافة) which ...
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Where did "humongous" first appear?
William Hartson called the word “surely one of the ugliest words ever to slither its way into our dictionaries”, but regardless of what he would like to say about the word, I actually have always ...
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What is the difference between a portmanteau and a kenning?
Their definitions seem to blur for me, as well as compound words in general. I'm thinking it might be a "square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square" concept but I'm not certain.
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How to convey a meaning of 'comfortableness in shopping' in a more concise way or descriptive but meaningful way (not superfluous)?
What I mean of "comfortableness" is a combination of these elements:
Easy access to the products and services. (also responsive service)
Clean environment and atmosphere (the air is healthy and clean ...
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A term for an end-user's device other than "endpoint"?
In my organisation, the encryption software of choice is McAfee Endpoint.
In this multi-cultural multi-national company, using the word "endpoint" to refer to an end-user's device(s) is confusing to ...
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Did the CNN reporter mispronounce the word 'wary'? [closed]
In this CNN report, a CNN reporter said this:
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Xi complied and as they were in the process of returning, you might recall, the president tweeted out wondering aloud if they would thank him for his ...
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Why isn't portmanteau spelled portemanteau?
Portmanteau, which describes words that are formed by combining two other words, was apparently coined by Lewis Carroll according to Wiktionary.
This word has obvious French origins, and there is in ...
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Is there a term specifically applying to a three-word portmanteau?
Oxford Dictionaries define a portmanteau as
A word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others, for example motel or brunch.
I've also heard the term apply to three- and four-word ...
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Negative of When
I'm designing some programming code, and the language is an important piece of making it easy for readers of the design to understand the context and intent of the code.
In particular, I'm looking for ...
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Term For A Portmanteau of Phrases [duplicate]
Does "portmanteau" only refer to single words like spork or turducken? If so what would be the term for multiple phrases combined together on a common word or words?
For example:
If I wanted to ...
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What’s the name of two words that are put together to make another word?
What’s the name of two words that are put together to make another word, e.g., mobile phone, chewing gum, or credit card. I’m not sure if these would be classed as portmanteau, compounds, or something ...
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What is the meaning of "bigamystery"?
Searching on Google yields nothing about this word's meaning but does yield some quotes in which it is used. I came across it in the following quote:
Why a man would want a wife is a big mystery to ...
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Looking for a word that describes the merger of two words, is this an example of Portmanteau?
This is slightly awkward to explain, so I will be as clear as possible. I am aware of what a portmanteau is, as you will see below, but I am unsure if my examples classify as such.
I'm looking to ...
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Is the word 'pineapple' considered a portmanteau? [closed]
This recently viral silly song got me thinking...how do you describe a word that is created by attached two other words together without any blending involved?
For example:
Pine + Apple = ...
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Term for derogatory suffix used with city names?
When speaking of a city in negative terms one might attach a prefix/suffix to the city name. This nickname is a portmanteau that implies a derogatory tone. Most often this will be a negative term but ...
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Is weary a common portmanteau of "wary" and "leary"? [closed]
In a comment on a different SE-page, someone misspelt (or intentionally used a different word?) wary, using weary instead:
Someone else jokingly pointed this out, the original commenter then claimed ...
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What is the word and/or process used to describe mashing two words together or inserting phonetic sounds to create new written words?
The question
Portmanteau seems to apply in cases like:
Phablet - Bigger than a smart phone, smaller than a tablet.
Smog - Smoke and fog.
Vlog - Video and blog.
There must be another word for things ...
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Hats on to Hatarchy
In the Winter Bash 2015 FAQs is the following FAQ:
'Hats? People will do anything to get a hat! It'll be anarchy! Hatarchy!
Worry not! All normal site rules still apply...'
So:
Is Hatarchy a ...
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Which is correct, "voicemail box" or "voice mailbox"
At work, I commonly type "voicemail box" and "voice mailbox" interchangeably so I'm wrong only half the time. Which one is correct?
I had a similar dilemma with "login to" and "log into", but this ...
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Are there any real-world examples of malamanteau?
I know that Randall (from xkcd) invented this word as a joke, but now I'm wondering. Are there any examples of real words that are "A portmanteau created by incorrectly combining a malapropism with a ...
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First use of -nomics after a name
Several people have had -nomics added to their name to indicate their economic policies. For example, Rogernomics and Abenomics .
To whom was the first -nomics attached? Was it Ronald Reagan?
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Creating new words [closed]
A student told me a speaker came to his company and was very interesting. This came up in the context of his preparation for a presentation about his company. In looking at the material the speaker ...
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What's in between "single" and "double"?
I'm trying to think of a word that basically communicates something in between a single and a double.
Is there such a thing as half of a tuple?
How would you communicate something that is in ...
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How common is the term "boondoggle"? And what is its origin?
Even for a country well accustomed to foreign policy boondoggles,
it was an impressive body count. Eighty Americans, eight Brits, eight
Germans — no French because they'd been boycotting Western ...
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Of Yuppies and Yippies and Hippies
While innocently passing by on my way to Big Rep City, I happened to overhear (alright! I was dropping eaves) a dialogue in some podunk Commentary Cafe wherein two fellow ELU consumers were debating ...
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Use and meaning of o between words in blends
First things first: I'm italian, so please apologize me for my poor english.
While trying to create a name for a thing, I got curious by the question in the title. Many English words (new and old ...
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Isn't the word "shotgun" a self-redundancy? [closed]
I was googling the reason for why it's called "shotgun" to ride beside the driver when it suddenly hit me - why on Earth is the firearm called "shotgun"?!
Is there any other kind of a gun than one ...
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What do you call collective intelligence?
Collective intelligence is a form of wisdom of crowds. What together an aggregation knows is often pretty comparable with expert opinions. What is one word (or at most two) that describes this kind of ...
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Portmanteau components to the word Dramedy
Is dramedy a combination of drama + comedy?
Or, is it a combination for drama + tragedy?
Further research seems to show that it is a combination for drama + comedy.
Question:
In that case, what ...
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Is this a portmanteau, contraction, or perhaps both?
I have chosen to edit this post because it apparently has offended some of the more sensitive among us. While, personally, I feel this should prompt discourse rather than down votes, I do not wish to ...
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Word for a portmanteau made of two synonyms
Is there a word for a (possibly accidental) portmanteau of two synonyms?
For example, say, you contract "liberty" and "freedom" to "liberdom".
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Term for words like Snowmageddon, Nipplegate and even cheeseburger?
Is there a term for words like Snowmageddon, Nipplegate and even cheeseburger?
I know they're portmanteaus (or portmanteaux), but they seem to belong to a special class of portmanteau.
In the title ...
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What does “Logitem” mean on many freightliners?
What does Logitem mean that I see on the sides of many passing freightliners?
I wonder wether it’s a kind of clipping combining logistic with item.
I'm not a native speaker but I love English.
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What are the implicit rules for creating new portmanteaux in English?
Wikipedia defines a portmanteau1 as:
“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....
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Would the word "tween" be considered a portmanteau or is it just a truncation?
Is it the word "between", but truncated, or a portmanteau of "in between" and "teen"?
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Is ‘celebvocate’ gaining currency in English?
I saw the word, “celebvocate” in “Editor’s Pick” section in today’s (July 14) Washington Post which comes under the caption, “When ‘celebvocates’ come to D.C.” and followed by the lead copy:
“Here ...
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Good term for a business partner and competitor?
In our line of work we often work with other companies as partners on some jobs, and then compete against them on other jobs. So they are partners and competitors. Is there a good term for this, ...
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What is the correct pronunciation of “regex”?
The term regular expression is often shortened to regex. What is the correct pronunciation of the g in regex?
Is it like the g1 in gallium, or is it like the g2 in giraffe? I’ve heard it said both ...
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Is there an American term for a group of elitist schools, similar to the abbreviation “Oxbridge”?
I saw the word, ‘Oxbridge’, a portmanteau of Oxford and Cambridge, in a comment to a question asking for a better word for ‘invigilator’:
Whereas the situation is reversed in the UK, and one in a ...
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Hyphenation or blending
Are there any rules when to write a set of two (or more) words or abbreviations forming a name of some entity as separate, when to hyphenate, and when to stick them together?
These are my findings ...
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What do you call the process of combining two words to create a new one?
Two very well established examples I can think of are:
Guesstimate (i.e. Guess + Estimate)
Chillax (i.e. Chill + Relax)
I guess I am meaning the process where two words are artificially combined ...
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What does “adorkable” mean? How popular is this word? To what kind of objects and occasions can I apply “adorkable”?
I happened to find the paperback book titled Adorkable, by Sarra Manning, on the GoodReads site.
There is no entry for adorkable in the Cambridge, Oxford or Merriam-Webster dictionaries, or in ...
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A word for female bonding
A bromance is "a close but non-sexual relationship between two men". Is there an equivalent for women? IMO, sisterhood doesn't really fit.
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Is "quaver" a blend word of "quake" and "waver"?
Dictionary.com has this etymology for quaver:
1400–50; late Middle English quaveren (v.), blend of quake and waver
But Wiktionary disagrees:
From Middle English quaveren, frequentative form ...
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Brainstorm: a pun on rainstorm?
The Online Etymology Dictionary unsurprisingly says brainstorm is from the combination of brain and storm.
What I want to know is whether or not this neologism was an intentional pun on the word ...
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Term, blend-word, or metaphor for being social but with boundaries [closed]
I'm looking for a term, word or metaphor for being social but within rules or boundaries.
I don't like the word privacy as it has a negative connotation. I think the word social is overused or ...
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Pronunciation of letters "g" and "c" in blend words
According to this article:
The Pronunciation of ‘C’ and ‘G’ generally (but not always) depends
upon the letter following either 'C' or 'G'. If the following letter
is ‘E’, ‘I’ or ‘Y’, the ...
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