Portmanteau

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Etymology

This word was coined by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, in which it is likened to a travelling case. He used the French word "porte-manteau" (coat hanger). Carroll has Humpty Dumpty say, "Well, slithy means lithe and slimy... You see it's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word." Carroll used such words to humorous effect in his poems, especially Jabberwocky, which Humpty Dumpty is explaining to Alice.

Related Topics:
Lewis Carroll - Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There - Travelling case - Humpty Dumpty - Portmanteau - Jabberwocky

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"Portmanteau word" was the original phrase used to describe such words (as listed in dictionaries published as late as the early 1990s), but this has since been abbreviated to simply "portmanteau" as the term (and the type of words it describes) gained popularity. "Portmanteau" is rarely used for its original meaning in current English, that type of travelling case having fallen into disuse. In Queensland, Australia, it is shortened to 'Port', and used as slang for a schoolbag.

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James Joyce used portmanteau words extensively in Finnegans Wake. Many corporate brand names, trademarks, and initiatives, as well as names of corporations and organizations themselves, are portmanteaus. For example, Wikipedia is a portmanteau made from wiki and encyclopedia, and Wiktionary, one of Wikipedia's sister projects, is a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary.

Related Topics:
James Joyce - Finnegans Wake - Brand name - Wikipedia - Wiki - Encyclopedia - Wiktionary - Dictionary

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In the 21st Century, tabloid writers often portmanteau-ize the first names of famous couples. Some examples include Bennifer (for both Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, and Affleck and Jennifer Garner) and TomKat (for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes).

Related Topics:
Tabloid - Bennifer - Ben Affleck - Jennifer Lopez - Jennifer Garner - Tom Cruise - Katie Holmes

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