Portmanteau
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A portmanteau (/pɔrtˈmæntoʊ/), plural portmanteaux, is a word or morpheme that fuses two or more words or word parts to give a combined or loaded new meaning. It is a common misunderstanding that a portmanteau is a mixture of any two words, which is actually known as a blend.
A folk usage of portmanteau refers to a word formed by combining both sounds and meanings from two or more words, such as spork from spoon and fork. They are called blends in linguistics.
Etymology and usage
This usage of the word was coined by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871). In the book, Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice words from Jabberwocky, saying, “Well, slithy means lithe and slimy ... You see it's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.” Carroll often used such words to convey humorous effect in his work.
Portemanteau, from Middle French porter (to carry) and manteau (a coat or cover), originally referred to a large travelling bag or suitcase with two compartments, hence the linguistic idea of fusing two words and their meanings into one. Portemanteau is rarely used to refer to a suitcase in English any more, since that type of a suitcase has fallen into disuse. (Note - amongst older Australians the diminutive term "port" is sometimes used to describe a carry-item containing personal belongings.) In French, the word has the different meaning of coat hanger, and sometimes coat rack, and is spelled porte-manteau.
Portmanteau word was the original phrase used to describe such words (as listed in dictionaries published as late as the early 2000s), but this is now usually abbreviated to simply portmanteau.
Portmanteau morpheme
A portmanteau morpheme is a morpheme which fuses two or more grammatical categories (see fusional language). The classical example of such a morpheme in English is the verbal suffix -s. This particular suffix carries (i.e., ports) at least four distinct inflectional meanings and imparts each of these onto the verb's meaning:
Spanish verb suffixes are also fusional with very many portmanteaux in the Spanish inflectional system.
Portmanteau word
In linguistics, a portmanteau word is a word which fuses two function words. This use overlaps a bit with the folk term contraction, but linguists avoid using the latter. Example: In French, à + les becomes aux (IPA: [o]), a single indivisible word which contains both meanings.
Blend
Outside the formal study of linguistics, the term portmanteau or combination is sometimes used for blends, neologism by blending the parts of two or more words, generally the back-clipped first word and the fore-clipped second word, such as motel, smog, and brunch.
See also
- Syllabic abbreviations
- Compound words
- Clipping (morphology)
- Blend
- Amalgamation (names)
- Contraction (grammar)
- Morphology (linguistics)
- Border towns in the United States with portmanteau names
- Verbal Behavior