From Fantabulous to Frenemy to Frappuccino: Fifty Portmanteau Words
What is a portmanteau word?
A portmanteau word is made up of two or more existing words that have been blended together.
Often portmanteau words start off as slang or nonsense words but later become part of Standard English due to being widely used. The rise of technology and the internet, in particular, has led to many portmanteau words being created, e.g. pixel, emoticon, and vlog.
Why ‘portmanteau’?
It was the famous British children’s writer, Lewis Carroll, who first used ‘portmanteau’ to describe these word blends in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.
A portmanteau was a type of suitcase which had two compartments, and so Carroll used it as a metaphor for a term that had two separate words packed into it. In the novel, the character Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice: “You see it’s like a portmanteau – there are two meanings packed up into one word.”
We’ve written about Lewis Carroll’s use of nonsense words previously – you can read more about them here.
Fifty examples of portmanteau words:
|
Portmanteau Word
|
What is it made up from?
|
| Biopic |
Biographical and (Motion) Picture |
| Blog |
Web and Log |
| Bromance |
Brother and Romance |
| Brunch |
Breakfast and Lunch |
| Camcorder |
Camera and Recorder |
| Carjack |
Car and Hijack |
| Cheeseburger |
Cheese and Hamburger |
| Chillax |
Chill and Relax |
| Chinglish/ Franglais/ Hinglish/ Spanglish |
Chinese and English / Français and Anglais / Hindi and English / Spanish and English |
| Chortle |
Chuckle and Snort |
| Cyborg |
Cybernetic and Organism |
| Dramedy |
Drama and Comedy |
| Emoticon |
Emotion and Icon |
| Endorphin |
Endogenous and Morphine |
| Escalator |
Escalate and Elevator |
| Fandom |
Fan and Kingdom |
| Fantabulous |
Fantastic and Fabulous |
| Fanzine |
Fan and Magazine |
| Frappuccino |
Frappé and Cappuccino |
| Frenemy |
Friend and Enemy |
| Ginormous |
Gigantic and Enormous |
| Guesstimate |
Guess and Estimate |
| Hangry |
Hungry and Angry |
| Infomercial |
Information and Commercial |
| Jeggings |
Jeans and Leggings |
| Keytar |
Keyboard and Guitar |
| Labradoodle |
Labrador Retriever and Poodle |
| Malware |
Malicious and Software |
| Mathlete |
Mathematics and Athlete |
| Mocktail |
Mock and Cocktail |
| Mockumentary |
Mock and Documentary |
| Moped |
Motor and Pedal |
| Motel |
Motor and Hotel |
| Napalm |
Naphthene and Palmitate |
| Netiquette |
Internet and Etiquette |
| Newscast |
News and Broadcast |
| Oxbridge |
Oxford and Cambridge |
| Pixel |
Picture and Element |
| Pleather |
Plastic and Leather |
| Rom Com |
Romantic and Comedy |
| Sitcom |
Situational and Comedy |
| Skort |
Skirt and Shorts |
| Smog |
Smoke and Fog |
| Snark |
Snide and Remark |
| Spork |
Spoon and Fork |
| Taxicab |
Taximeter and Cabriolet |
| Vitamin |
Vital and Amine |
| Vlog |
Video and Blog |
| Webcast |
World Wide Web and Broadcast |
| Workaholic |
Work and Alcoholic |
You will have noticed that some of these examples are slang words while others are widely used in professional writing – if you are planning on using any of these words in your own writing, make sure that they are appropriate to the style you are aiming for! Have a good week!
Avani Shah
15 Sep 2014
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