Definition:
A word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two or more other words. See also:
Etymology:
From Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)Examples & Observations:
- Brangelina (Brad Pitt + Angelina Jolie)
- Frankenfood (Frankenstein + food)
- infomercial (information + commercial)
- motel (motor + hotel)
- netiquette (net + etiquette)
- Oxbridge (Oxford + Cambridge)
- pixel (pic + element)
- quasar (quasi-stellar + star)
- sexting (sex + texting)
- smog (smoke + fog)
- splatter (splash + spatter)
- statusphere (status + atmosphere)
- Tanzania (Tanganyika + Zanzibar)
- telethon (television + marathon)
- Viagravation (Viagra + aggravation)
- "A word formed by fusing elements of two other words, such as Lewis Carroll's slithy from slimy and lithe. He called such forms portmanteau words, because they were like a two-part portmanteau bag. Blending is related to abbreviation, derivation, and compounding, but distinct from them all."
(Tom McArthur, "Blend," The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press, 1992) - "Smirting happens when two people, smoking outside, fall to flirting, and discover that they have more in common than simply nicotine. In Ireland, where the term originated after the ban in 2004, there is even evidence of non-smokers joining the smoky throng outside because the atmosphere there is more flirtatious.
"Smirting is a portmanteau word, formed by packing parts of two words together to create another, combining the sense of each."
(Ben Macintyre, "Ben Macintyre Celebrates the Portmanteau," The Times, May 2, 2008) - "So a blog is a web log? Is there an apostrophe, or do you guys not even have the strength for that? You’re just going to jam two words together?"
(Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, February 2006)
Pronunciation: port-MAN-tow
Also Known As: blend
