PORTMANTEAU EXPLAINED
"Portmanteau word" is used to describe a linguistic blend, namely "a word formed by blending sounds from two or more distinct words and combining their meanings.
Examples of "portmanteau" in this sense appeared in Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass (1871), in which Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in Jabberwocky, where "slithy" means "lithe and slimy" and "mimsy" is "flimsy and miserable". Humpty Dumpty explains the practice of combining words in various ways by telling Alice,
'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:
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".
The word "portmanteau" itself was converted by Carroll to describe the concept. "Portmanteau" comes from French porter, to carry + manteau, cloak (from Old French mantel, from Latinmantellum). In then-contemporary English, a portmanteau was a suitcase. In modern French, a portemanteau (or porte-manteaux) is a clothes valet, a coat-tree or similar article of furniture for hanging up jackets, hats, umbrellas and the like."
MY FAVORITE PORTMANTEAU
Fricken: Fresh or frozen chicken
Spruch: Spray and scrunch
Spump: Speed bump
Groodly: Good and friendly
Spork: Spoon fork
Liger: Lion tiger (you know, like Shasta?)
Moaf: Meat loaf (I combined this one, because I don't like the word loaf)
MegaTom: Megan and Tom
Swaction: Sweet action
Swaction: Sweet action
I'll add more as I remember them.
