THE LIFE OF THE RIDDLE

THE LIFE OF THE RIDDLE

Thursday, April 26, 2007

portmanteau


In my last blog I wrote about the femmullett being a combination of:
feminine + mullet = femullet

A fusion of two words is actually called a portmanteau. My freind Wikipedia told me the follwing:
A portmanteau or blend is a word which fuses two or more words or parts of words to give a combined meaning. A folk usage of portmanteau refers to a word formed by combining both sounds and meanings from two or more words (e.g. spork from spoon/fork.)

The word blog is a portmanteau word from web + log.

My sister’s favorite portmanteau word is slithy from slither + slimy. This word and others were made popular by Lewis Carrol.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

My favorite portmanteau is Brunch (Breakfast + Lunch)

Here is a whole list of portmanteau. http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/portmant.htm

Which portmanteau is your favorite?

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