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For other uses, see Portmanteau (disambiguation).

A portmanteau (/pɔːrtˈmæntoʊ/ ⓘ, /ˌpɔːrtmænˈtoʊ/) or portmanteau word (from French "coat rack") is a linguistic blend of words,[1] in which parts of multiple words or their phonemes (sounds) are combined into a new word,[1][2][3] as in smog, coined by blending smoke and fog,[2][4] or motel, from motor and hotel.[5] In linguistics, a portmanteau is a single morph that is analyzed as representing two (or more) underlying morphemes.[6][7][8][9]

The definition overlaps with the grammatical term contraction, but contractions are formed from words that would otherwise appear together in sequence, such as do and not to make don't, whereas a portmanteau word is formed by combining two or more existing words that all relate to a singular concept. A portmanteau also differs from a compound, which does not involve the truncation of parts of the stems of the blended words. For instance, starfish is a compound, not a portmanteau, of star and fish, as it includes both words in full.

Origin

The word portmanteau was first used in this sense by Lewis Carroll in the book Through the Looking-Glass (1871),[10] where Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of unusual words used in "Jabberwocky".[11] In the phrase slithy is used to mean "slimy and lithe" and mimsy is "miserable and flimsy". Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the practice of combining words in various ways:

You see it's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.

In his introduction to The Hunting of the Snark, Carroll uses portmanteau when discussing lexical selection:[11]

Humpty Dumpty's theory, of two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all. For instance, take the two words "fuming" and "furious". Make up your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first … if you have the rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say "frumious".

In then-contemporary English, a portmanteau was a suitcase that opened into two equal sections. According to the OED Online, a portmanteau is a "case or bag for carrying clothing and other belongings when travelling; (originally) one of a form suitable for carrying on horseback; (now esp.) one in the form of a stiff leather case hinged at the back to open into two equal parts".[12] According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (AHD), the etymology of the word is the French porte-manteau, from porter, "to carry", and manteau, "cloak" (from Old French mantel, from Latin mantellum).[13] According to the OED Online, the etymology of the word is the "officer who carries the mantle of a person in a high position (1507 in Middle French), case or bag for carrying clothing (1547), clothes rack (1640)".[12] In modern French, a porte-manteau is a clothes valet, a coat-tree or similar article of furniture for hanging up jackets, hats, umbrellas and the like.[14][15][16]

An occasional synonym for "portmanteau word" is frankenword, an autological word exemplifying the phenomenon it describes, blending "Frankenstein" and "word".[17]

Examples in English

For a more comprehensive list, see List of portmanteaus.
The original Gerrymander pictured in an 1812 cartoon. The word is a portmanteau of Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry's name with salamander.

Many neologisms are examples of blends, but many blends have become part of the lexicon.[11] In Punch in 1896, the word brunch (breakfast + lunch) was introduced as a "portmanteau word."[18] In 1964, the newly independent African republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar chose the portmanteau word Tanzania as its name. Similarly Eurasia is a portmanteau of Europe and Asia.

Some city names are portmanteaus of the border regions they straddle: Texarkana spreads across the Texas-Arkansas-Louisiana border, while Calexico and Mexicali are respectively the American and Mexican sides of a single conurbation. A scientific example is a liger, which is a cross between a male lion and a female tiger (a tigon is a similar cross in which the male is a tiger).

Many company or brand names are portmanteaus, including Microsoft, a portmanteau of microcomputer and software; the cheese Cambozola combines a similar rind to Camembert with the same mold used to make Gorgonzola; passenger rail company Amtrak, a portmanteau of America and track; Velcro, a portmanteau of the French velours (velvet) and crochet (hook); Verizon, a portmanteau of veritas (Latin for truth) and horizon; and ComEd (a Chicago-area electric utility company), a portmanteau of Commonwealth and Edison.

Jeoportmanteau! is a recurring category on the American television quiz show Jeopardy!. The category's name is itself a portmanteau of the words Jeopardy and portmanteau. Responses in the category are portmanteaus constructed by fitting two words together.

Portmanteau words may be produced by joining together proper nouns with common nouns, such as "gerrymandering", which refers to the scheme of Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry for politically contrived redistricting; the perimeter of one of the districts thereby created resembled a very curvy salamander in outline. The term gerrymander has itself contributed to portmanteau terms bjelkemander and playmander.

Oxbridge is a common portmanteau for the UK's two oldest universities, those of Oxford and Cambridge. In 2016, Britain's planned exit from the European Union became known as "Brexit".

A spork

Many portmanteau words receive some use but do not appear in all dictionaries. For example, a spork is an eating utensil that is a combination of a spoon and a fork, and a skort is an item of clothing that is part skirt, part shorts. On the other hand, turducken, a dish made by inserting a chicken into a duck, and the duck into a turkey, was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2010.

Similarly, the word refudiate was first used by Sarah Palin when she misspoke, conflating the words refute and repudiate. Though initially the word was a gaffe, it was recognized as the New Oxford American Dictionary's "Word of the Year" in 2010.[19]

The business lexicon is replete with newly formed portmanteau words like "permalance" (permanent freelance), "advertainment" (advertising as entertainment), "advertorial" (a blurred distinction between advertising and editorial), "infotainment" (information about entertainment or itself intended to entertain by its manner of presentation), and "infomercial" (informational commercial).

A company name may also use portmanteau words. Examples include Timex (a portmanteau of Time (referring to Time magazine) and Kleenex[20] as well as a product name (e.g., Renault markets its Twingo, a combination of twist, swing and tango).[21] Another example is Garmin, portmanteau of company's founders firstnames Gary Burrell and Min Kao.

Name-meshing

Main article: Name blending

Two proper names can also be used in creating a portmanteau word in reference to the partnership between people, especially in cases where both persons are well-known, or sometimes to produce epithets such as "Billary" (referring to former United States president Bill Clinton and his wife, former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton). In this example of recent American political history, 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"; the effect is often derogatory, as linguist Benjamin Zimmer states.[22] By contrast, the public, including the media, use portmanteaus to refer to their favorite pairings as a way to "...giv[e] people an essence of who they are within the same name."[23] This is particularly seen in cases of fictional and real-life "supercouples". An early known example, Bennifer, referred to film stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Other examples include Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) and TomKat (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes).[23] "Desilu Productions" was a Los Angeles, California-based company jointly owned by couple and actors Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Miramax is the combination of the first names of the parents of the Weinstein brothers. On Wednesday, June 28, 2017, The New York Times crossword included the quip, "How I wish Natalie Portman dated Jacques Cousteau, so I could call them 'Portmanteau'". [24]

Holidays are another example, as in Thanksgivukkah, a portmanteau neologism given to the convergence of the American holiday of Thanksgiving and the first day of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah on Thursday, 28 November 2013.[25][26] Chrismukkah is another pop-culture portmanteau neologism popularized by the TV drama The O.C., merging of the holidays of Christianity's Christmas and Judaism's Hanukkah.

In the Disney film Big Hero 6, the film is situated in a fictitious city called "San Fransokyo", which is a portmanteau of two real locations, San Francisco and Tokyo.[27]

Other languages

French

The French linguistic term mot-valise, literally a "suitcase-word", is a relatively recent back-translation from English, attested only since 1970.[citation needed]

Although French of France is regulated by the Académie française (which has had a conservative attitude to neologisms), it produced a number of portmanteau words such as franglais (frenglish) or courriel (courrier électronique = email) and has used the technique in literature (Boris Vian) or to create brands: Transilien (Transports franciliens = Île-de-France transportation system).[note 1] A recent portmanteau example is Douzelage. Other examples : japonaiserie (from japonais ("japanese") and niaiserie ("inanity")).

French in Canada has a second regulatory body, named the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), an agency of the Government of Quebec, which is independent of the Académie. It tends to produce neologisms to replace anglicisms. It created the portmanteaus courriel (e-mail) from courrier (mail) and électronique (electronic), and clavardage (chatting) from clavier (keyboard) and bavardage (chatter), for example.

Modern Hebrew

Modern Hebrew abounds with European mechanisms such as blending: Along with CD, or simply Template:Hebrew (Disk), Hebrew has the blend Template:Hebrew (taklitor), which consists of Template:Hebrew (taklít, Phonograph record) and Template:Hebrew (or, light). Modern Hebrew is full of portmanteau blends, such as the following:[28]

Other blends include the following:

Sometimes the root of the second word is truncated, giving rise to a blend that resembles an acrostic:

Irish

A few portmanteaus are in use in modern Irish, for example:

Icelandic

There is a tradition of linguistic purism in Icelandic, and neologisms are frequently created from pre-existing words. For example, Tölva ("computer") is a portmanteau of tala ("digit; number") and völva ("oracle or seeress").[36]

Indonesian

In Indonesian, portmanteaus are often used as both formal and informal acronyms and referrals. Many organizations and government bodies use them for brevity. Journalists often create portmanteaus for particular historical moments. Examples include:

Formal and journalism uses:

  • Golput: voters who abstain from voting, from Golongan Putih, "blank party" or "white party".[37]
  • Jagorawi: a motorway linking the cities of Jakarta, Bogor and Ciawi.
  • Jabodetabek: the neighboring cities of Jakarta, consisting of Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, and sometimes Cianjur (Jabodetabekjur).
  • The Suramadu Bridge connects the cities of Surabaya and Madura
  • "Malari": refers to "Malapetaka 15 Januari" – a social riot that happened on 15 January 1974.
  • Military units, e.g. Kopassus army special forces unit, from Komando Pasukan Khusus, "special forces command". Another example is the Kopaska navy frogman unit, from Komando Pasukan Katak, "Frogman Command".
  • Governmental bodies, e.g. "Kemdikbud", refers to "Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan" (Education and Culture Ministry), where the ministry leader is called "Mendikbud", "Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan" (Minister of Education and Culture).

Informal uses, for example:

  • Asbun = Asal bunyi: carelessly speaking
  • Mafia = matematika + fisika + kimia: math, physics, and chemistry, three school subjects that are often related with arithmetic
  • Caper = cari perhatian: attention seeker
  • Warnet = warung internet: internet cafe
  • Alay = anak layangan: unfashionable people
  • Copas = Copy paste: copying other people's work without permission
  • Ropang = roti panggang: toasted bread
  • Nasgor = nasi goreng

Japanese

Main article: Japanese abbreviated and contracted words

A very common type of portmanteau in Japanese forms one word from the beginnings of two others (that is, from two back-clippings).[38] The portion of each input word retained is usually two morae, which is tantamount to one kanji in most words written in kanji.

The inputs to the process can be native words, Sino-Japanese words, gairaigo (later borrowings), or combinations thereof. A Sino-Japanese example is the name 東大 (Tōdai) for the University of Tokyo, in full 東京大学 (Tōkyō daigaku). With borrowings, typical results are words such as パソコン (pasokon), meaning personal computer (PC), which despite being formed of English elements does not exist in English; it is a uniquely Japanese contraction of the English personal computer (パーソナル・コンピュータ, pāsonaru konpyūta). Another example, Pokémon (ポケモン), is a contracted form of the English words pocket (ポケット, poketto) and monsters (モンスター, monsutā).[39] A famous example of a blend with mixed sources is karaoke (カラオケ, karaoke), blending the Japanese word for empty (空, kara) and the Greek word orchestra (オーケストラ, ōkesutora). The Japanese egg-shaped key chain pet toy fad from the 1990s, Tamagotchi, is a portmanteau combining the two Japanese words tamago (たまご), which means "egg", and uotchi (ウオッチ) "watch". The portmanteau can also be seen as a combination of tamago (たまご), "egg", and tomodachi (友だち), which means "friend".

Some Anime titles also are portmanteaus, such as Hetalia (ヘタリア). It came from Hetare (ヘタレ), which means "idiot", and Itaria (イタリア) which means Italy. Another example is Servamp, which came from the English words Servant (サーヴァント) and Vampire (ヴァンパイア).

Portuguese

In Brazilian Portuguese, portmanteaus are usually slangs, some of them include:

  • Cantriz, from cantora (female singer) and atriz (actress), which defines women that both sing and act.[40][41]
  • Aborrescente, from aborrecer (annoy) and adolescente (teenager), which is a pejorative term for teenagers.[42][43]
  • Pescotapa, from pescoço (neck) and tapa (slap), which defines a slap on the back of the neck.[44][45]

In European Portuguese, portmanteaus are also used. Some of them include:

Spanish

Although not very common in Spanish (except for a pair of compulsory contractions, 'a el' = 'al' and 'de el' = 'del'), portmanteaus are finding their way into the language mainly through marketing and media efforts, such as in Mexican Spanish 'cafebrería' from 'cafetería' (coffee shop) and 'librería' (bookstore), or Teletón from 'televisión' and 'maratón'. However, it is very frequent in commercial brands of any type (for instance, "chocolleta", from "chocolate" + "galleta", (cookie), and above all family-owned business (of small size, for instance: Rocar, from "Roberto" + "Carlos", and Mafer, from "Maria" + "Fernanda"). Such usages are prompted by the registering of a distinguishable trademark, but with time, commonly, a specific trademark became the name of the all similar products, like in Cola Cao, a name which is very common to use to refer any similar product.

Other examples:

  • Cantautor, which means Singer-songwriter, and comes from cantante (singer) and autor (songwriter).[47]
  • Mecatrónica[48] and Ofimática two neologisms that are blends of mecánica (mechanical) with electrónica (electronics), and oficina (office) with informática (informatics) respectively.
  • Espanglish, interlanguage that combines words from both Spanish (Español) and English.
  • Metrobús, blend of metro (subway) and autobús.
  • Autopista, blend of automóvil (car) and pista (highway).
  • Trabalenguas, which means tongue twister, from trabar (tangle up, jam) and lengua (tongue).
  • Company names and brands with portmanteaus are common in Spanish. Some examples of Spanish portmanteaus for Mexican companies include: The Mexican flag carrier Aeroméxico, (Aerovías de México), Banorte (Bank and North), Cemex (Cement and Mexico), Jumex (Jugos Mexicanos or Mexican Juice), Mabe (from founders Egon MAbardi and Francisco BErrondo), Pemex (Petróleos Mexicanos or Mexican Oil), Softtek (portmanteau and stylization of Software and technology), and Telmex (Teléfonos de Mexico). Gamesa (Galletera Mexicana, S.A. or Mexican Biscuit Company, Inc.) and Famsa (fabricantes Muebleros, S.A.) are examples of portmanteaus of four words, including the "S.A." (Sociedad Anónima).
  • Many more portmanteaus in Spanish come from anglicisms, which are words borrowed from English, like módem, transistor, códec, email, internet or emoticon.

A somewhat popular example in Spain is the word Gallifante,[49] a portmanteau of Gallo y Elefante (Cockerel and Elephant). It was the prize on the Spanish version of the children TV show Child's Play (Juego de niños) that ran on the public television channel La 1 of Televisión Española (TVE) from 1988 to 1992.[50]

Portmanteau morph

In linguistics, a blend is an amalgamation or fusion of independent lexemes, while a portmanteau or portmanteau morph is a single morph that is analyzed as representing two (or more) underlying morphemes.[6] For example, in the Latin word animalis the ending -is is a portmanteau morph because it is used for two morphemes: the singular number and the genitive case. In English two separate morphs are used (of an animal). Other examples include French a le → au /o/, and de le → du /dy/.[6]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The name also combines the word lien (link).

References

  1. ^ a b Garner's Modern American Usage Archived 27 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine, p. 644.
  2. ^ a b "Portmanteau". Merriam-Webster Offline Dictionary. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
  3. ^ "Portmanteau word". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. Archived from the original on 26 November 2007. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
  4. ^ "portmanteau word". Webster's New World College Dictionary. Cleveland: Wiley. 2010. ISBN 0-7645-7125-7.
  5. ^ "Portmanteau word". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  6. ^ a b c "What is a portmanteau morph?". LinguaLinks Library. 2003. Archived from the original on 19 June 2008.
  7. ^ Thomas, David (1983). "An invitation to grammar". Summer Institute of Linguistics. Bangkok: Mahidol University: 9. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ Crystal, David (1985). "A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics" (2nd ed.). New York: Basil Blackwell: 237. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ Hartmann, R.R.K.; Stork, F.C. (1972). "Dictionary of language and linguistics". London: Applied Science: 180. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ "portmanteau, n.". Oxford English Dictionary, third edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2011.
  11. ^ a b c Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., and Hyams, N. (2007) An Introduction to Language, Eighth Edition. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth. ISBN 1-4130-1773-8.
  12. ^ a b "portmanteu". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 18 July 2019. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  13. ^ "Portmanteau". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
  14. ^ Petit Robert: portemanteau – "malle penderie" (suitcase in which clothes hang).
  15. ^ "PORTEMANTEAU : Définition de PORTEMANTEAU". cnrtl.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 21 August 2014.
  16. ^ Such a "coat bag" is mentioned in Chapter 12 of Alexander Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo.
  17. ^ "Frankenwords: They're Alive!" The Guardian, 5 February, 2016. Archived 10 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
  18. ^ Punch, 1 August 1896, 58/2
  19. ^ "NEW OXFORD AMERICAN DICTIONARY'S 2010 WORD OF THE YEAR IS..." Archived from the original on 16 January 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  20. ^ Tully, Shawn (7 March 2015). "The crazy, true-life adventures of Norway's most radical billionaire". Fortune. Archived from the original on 28 July 2016. A few years later Thomas Olsen would rechristen the company Timex. He hatched the iconic name from an unusual confluence of sources. Recalls Fred: "My father always loved to noodle with words. He liked to read Time magazine, and he used a lot of Kleenex, so he put the two names together and got Timex."
  21. ^ "Twingo I". Renault UK Press Office. Renault. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  22. ^ Zimmer, Benjamin (1 November 2005). "A perilous portmanteau?". Language Log. University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on 29 December 2008. Retrieved 11 November 2008.
  23. ^ a b Winterman, Denise (3 August 2006). "What a mesh". BBC News Magazine. Archived from the original on 16 December 2007. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
  24. ^ "The Daily Crossword". Nytimes.com. 28 June 2017.
  25. ^ Christine Byrne (2 October 2013). "How To Celebrate Thanksgivukkah, The Best Holiday Of All Time". Buzzfeed. Archived from the original on 9 October 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2013.
  26. ^ Stu Bykofsky (22 October 2012). "Thanks for Thanukkah!". Philly.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  27. ^ "A Tour Of 'San Fransokyo', The Hybrid City Disney Built For Big Hero 6". Gizmodo Australia. 8 October 2014. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  28. ^ See p. 62 in Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2009), Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns, Journal of Language Contact, Varia 2 (2009), pp. 40–67.
  29. ^ "The Irish words for 'selfie', 'Brexit' and 'spam'". Irishtimes.com.
  30. ^ "Making sense of Brexit". Irishtimes.com.
  31. ^ "Slánaiste: Irish Times Letter Writers Have Their Say on the Political Crisis" (30 November 2017). The Irish Times. Retrieved from IrishTimes.com, 18 September 2018.
  32. ^ Spain, Cíara. "'Slánaiste' As Frances Fitzgerald Set To Resign - Radio Nova". Nova.ie.
  33. ^ "Champion of Irish Dancing & Naíonraí Has Passed Away". Cnag.ie. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  34. ^ "The Irish translation of the Game of Thrones books are really, really literal". Entertainment.ie.
  35. ^ CHRÍOST, DIARMAIT MAC GIOLLA (23 June 2018). "Jailtacht: The Irish Language, Symbolic Power and Political Violence in Northern Ireland, 1972-2008". University of Wales Press. JSTOR j.ctt9qhjkk. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  36. ^ Kristján Árnason; Sigrún Helgadóttir (1991), "Terminology and Icelandic Language Policy", Behovet och nyttan av terminologiskt arbete på 90-talet, Nordterm 5, Nordterm-symposium, pp. 7–21.
  37. ^ "Golput – Schott's Vocab Blog – NYTimes.com". The New York Times. 17 February 2009. Archived from the original on 9 February 2011. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
  38. ^ "What are contracted words like rimokon?". Sljfaq.org. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  39. ^ Rosen, Eric. "Japanese loanword accentuation: epenthesis and foot form interacting through edge-interior alignment∗" (PDF). University of British Columbia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 June 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
  40. ^ "A hora das cantrizes - ISTOÉ Independente". ISTOÉ Independente (in Brazilian Portuguese). 4 October 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  41. ^ ""Consegui realizar meu grande sonho: ser cantriz!"". Tititi (in Brazilian Portuguese). 20 February 2016. Archived from the original on 16 April 2018. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  42. ^ "O que é uma palavra-valise?". Kid Bentinho. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  43. ^ "Significado de Aborrescente". Dicionarioinformal.com.br. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  44. ^ ""Pescotapa" de Ciro Gomes repercute nas redes; apoiadores afirmam que vídeo foi manipulado - Brasil - BOL Notícias". Noticias.bol.uol.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  45. ^ "Significado de Pescotapa". Dicionarioinformal.com.br. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  46. ^ "telemóvel - English translation – Linguee". Linguee.com. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  47. ^ Cantautor, ra Royal Spanish Academy
  48. ^ "Ingeniería mecatrónica", Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre (in Spanish), 2 December 2019, retrieved 10 December 2019
  49. ^ "Gallifantes - RTVE.es". Rtve.es. 25 February 2011.
  50. ^ País, Ediciones El (4 June 1988). "Jugar bien vale un 'gallifante'". Elpais.com.
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