portmanteau word
- noun
- /ˌpɔrtˈmænˌtoʊ wɜrd/
- Specialized
:
palabra compuesta
- A popular example of a portmanteau word is 'smog,' which blends 'smoke' and 'fog.'
Examples
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You all know what portmanteau words are, yes?
Blog text (24) -
In this puzzle, Joe Krozel upends that notion and takes existing, legitimate words and imagines them as portmanteau words via inane back-formations.
Blog text (24) -
The term 'brunch' is a portmanteau word that combines 'breakfast' and 'lunch.'
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In linguistics, a portmanteau word refers to a word formed from parts of two existing words, like 'motel' from 'motor' and 'hotel.'
Synonyms
5
4.0
A word made by joining parts of two words, like 'brunch'
1
7.5
A new word made by joining parts of two words like brunch
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is fully compositional: 'portmanteau' denotes a blended/new lexical item and 'word' simply marks the category, so the combined phrase directly means 'a blended word.' There is no idiomatic or metaphorical shift, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The noun portmanteau word comes from a French word for a suitcase. Lewis Carroll used the suitcase image to say two words are 'packed' together into one word that keeps both meanings, so a portmanteau word is a word made by blending parts of two words.