A portmanteau is the smashing together of two words. The word "portmanteau" started as the name for a suitcase that opens into halves. George Bailey probably would have used a portmanteau on his trip around the world, had he ever made it out of Bedford Falls.
English writer Lewis Carroll seized it in Through the Looking Glass. His ovoid oracle, Humpty Dumpty, educated Alice on the meaning:
"Well, 'slithy' means 'lithe and slimy'... You see it's like a portmanteau -- there are two meanings packed up into one word."
Some portmanteaus have been in the language for so long that you might not think of them as smashed. The words "smog" and "brunch" have been in use since the late 1800s. "Motel" has been used since the 1920s.
smoke + fog = smog
motor + hotel = motel
telephone + marathon = telethon
breakfast + lunch = brunch
parachute + troops = paratrooper
squeeze + crunch = scrunch
dumb + confound = dumbfound
television + broadcast = telecast
squirm + wriggle = squiggle
snort + chuckle = chortle (Another Lewis Carroll creation, from "Jabberwocky.")
I never knew this was where "internet" was from:
international + network = internet
Manhattan is big on portmanteaus:
North of + Little Italy = NoLiTa
South of + Houston = SoHo
Triangle + Below + Canal = TriBeCa
The entertainment world has some examples:
situation + comedy = sitcom
Bombay + Hollywood = Bollywood
Brad Pitt + Angelina Jolie = Brangelina
I was relieved this week to see that "Brangelina" had not invaded the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. It may be even less likely to make it now. But "Bollywood" is in there.
Other smashed words are used casually:
channel + tunnel = chunnel. That train tube that runs from England to France.
bro + romance = bromance. A close friendship between men. Wow, this is in Merriam-Webster.
work + (a variation on) alcoholic = workaholic. A person who works compulsively.
gigantic + enormous = ginormous
email + invitation = evite. I need to see what Miss Manners thinks of evites.
I use the word "evite" in Scrabble all the time, and I thought it was an emailed invitation. Silly me. It's an archaic word for "avoid."
I wish I could fast forward a century or so to see whether these words have survived.
DESSERTS VS. DESERTS
If I were ever to open a restaurant, I would call it Just Desserts and serve only sweets. In other uses of the phrase, though, the proper spelling is "just deserts."
He had played Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana CDs for 12 hours straight. He got his just deserts when she played just one song for 12 hours: "Call Me Maybe."
The phrase means one gets what one deserves. That's how you can remember the spelling. "Deserve" has one s, and, in this context, "deserts" also has one s.
And I am repeating myself from an earlier column, but to remember the spelling of "desserts," the way you end a proper dinner, think, "Desserts are super sweet." The "s" is in there twice.
Sources: wisegeek.com/what-are-portmanteau-words.htm, The Careful Writer by Theodore M. Bernstein, m-w.com, Washington State University's Common Errors in English Usage
Reach Bernadette at
bkwordmonger@gmail.com
ActiveStyle on 12/12/2016