In some linguistics fields, and also to an extent in common usage, a portmanteau word (sometimes just portmanteau) is a term used to describe a word which fuses two or more function words.
Meaning
"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".[1]
Such a definition of "portmanteau word" overlaps with the grammatical term contraction, and linguists avoid using the former term in such cases. As an example: the words do + not become the contraction don't, a single word which represents the meaning of the combined words.
A humorous synonym for "portmanteau word" is "frankenword", itself a portmanteau word, blending "Frankenstein" and "word".[2]
Origin
The usage of the word 'portmanteau' in this sense first appeared in Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass (1871)[3], in which Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in Jabberwocky:[4]
- "‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’... You see it's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word"
- "‘Mimsy’ is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there's another portmanteau ... for you)".
Carroll uses the word again 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 ... you will say "frumious."[4].
Carroll suggests here a double metaphor: the original meaning of the word 'portmanteau' is a form of suitcase (which supports the idea that meanings can be 'packed' into it), and the word 'portmanteau' is itself a 'portmanteau word', deriving from the two French words porter (to carry) and manteau (cloak or mantle).
Examples
Many protologisms are examples of blends, but many blends have become part of the lexicon.[4] In Punch in 1896, the word brunch (breakfast + lunch) was introduced as a "portmanteau word".[5] In 1964, the newly-independent African republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar chose the portmanteau word Tanzania as its name.
Portmanteau words are also used to describe bilingual speakers who use words from both languages while speaking. For instance a person would be considered speaking "Spanglish" if they are using both Spanish and English words at the same time. In Canada, where French and English are both spoken, the collaboration of the two languages some people speak is commonly referred to as "Franglais".
Portmanteau words are also produced by conjoining proper names with common nouns, such as "Gerrymandering" which refers to the scheme of Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry for politically contrived redistricting: the districts created had the semblance of a salamander in outline.
Portmanteau words involving proper names are sometimes used to produce epithets such as "Scalito" (referring to Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia) or "Billary" (referring to former United States president Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton). Here, the purpose for blending is not so much to combine the meanings of the source words but "to suggest a resemblance of one named person to the other" and the effect is often derogatory, as linguist Benjamin Zimmer notes.[6]
Subsequent to the Watergate Scandal, it became popular to attach the suffix "-gate" to other words to describe contemporary scandals, e.g. "Filegate" for the White House FBI files controversy.
See also
References
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary
- ^ Victor Frankenstein being the creator of the monster in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, the monster being constructed from parts from several bodies.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, Portmanteau definition 4b, giving Carroll as first user, second usage appearing in 1882 in the Cornhill Magazine
- ^ a b c Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., and Hyams, N. (2007) An Introduction to Language, Eighth Edition. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth. ISBN 1-4130-1773-8
- ^ Punch, 1 August 1896, 58/2
- ^ http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002610.html Language Log: A Perilous Portmanteau?
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