Putting together portmanteaus

What is a portmanteau?

A portmanteau is a word comprised of two words blended together that uses the pronunciation and meanings of both original words. Usually to write a portmanteau, you attach the first half of one word to the second half of another word. However, you’ll always find creative exceptions.

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Portmanteaus grant you another avenue to explore wordplay. By combining two different words into a new one, you can introduce unique sounds and meanings to your readers. You can either use portmanteaus to create whimsy or name a new concept that didn’t previously exist. They are practical and widely used all over the world. It’s almost surprising they’ve only been around since the Victorian era.

Lewis Carroll, the father of the portmanteau

Lewis Carroll first coined the word portmanteau in his 1871 book Through the Looking Glass. In the book, he shares a poem called Jabberwocky and introduces several portmanteaus as seen in this excerpt:

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

In the story, Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice that “slithy” means “slimy” and “lithe” and that “mimsy” means “miserable” and “flimsy.” There’s another portmanteau in that excerpt too: “chortle.” “Chortle” is the combination of “chuckle” and “snort,” and society liked this one so much we still use it today.

The purpose of portmanteaus

Portmanteaus are creative in origin and are often used for whimsical purposes. Poets, song writers, and social media gurus certainly love using this device to delight audiences. It’s thanks to portmanteaus that we have words like “chillax” (the combination of “chill” and “relax”) and “bromance” (the combination of “brother” and “romance”). Society will even use portmanteaus for nicknaming couples, like “Brangelina” (the combination of the first names of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie).

Because of their playful origins, many people write portmanteaus off as silly and childish, but they are more than that. Portmanteaus serve the very practical purpose of coining new words. We use them to describe a new technology or scientific breakthroughs in a way the public will understand quickly. Examples of this application include, “camcorder,” a combination of “camera” and “recorder,” “breathalyzer,” a portmanteau of “breath” and “analyzer,” and “malware,” a mix of “malicious” and “software.”

Portmanteaus are also used in media and politics to give phenomenon a short, easy-to-remember name. For example, when British citizens voted to withdraw Great Britain from the European Union, the media called it “Brexit,” a portmanteau of “Britain” and “exit.”

Another fun one that came from politics is “gerrymandering.” In the 1800s, Governor Elbridge Gerry redrew the districts of Massachusetts to his benefit. One of the districts was so distorted that it looked like a salamander. The public combined “Gerry” and “salamander” together to form “gerrymandering.” While the general public forgets its origin, we still use the term today to describe manipulating of boundaries for personal political benefit.

The difference between a portmanteau and a compound word

A portmanteau is different than a compound word. Yes, they are both literary devices where you combine two words together, but they work differently. While portmanteaus combine two words to form a word using the first half of one word and the second half of the other, compound words combine two words, in their entirety, to form a word. Examples include “lighthouse,” “superhero,” and “railroad.”

More examples of portmanteaus

You read and write portmanteaus every day, probably without even realizing it. Look through these examples of portmanteaus and see if any surprise you.

• Animatronics = animation + electronics
• Anklet = ankle + bracelet
• Biopic = biography + picture
• Botox = botulism + toxin
• Carjack = car + hijack
• Cosplay = costume + roleplay
• Cyborg = cybernetic + organism
• Electrocute = electricity + execute
• Emoticon = emotion + icon
• Froyo = frozen + yogurt
• Fortnight = fourteen + night
• Glamping = glamorous + camping
• Hangry = hungry + angry
• Hazmat = hazardous = material
• Medicare = medical + care
• Mockumentary = mock + documentary
• Motel = motor + hotel
• Podcast = iPod + broadcast
• Pokémon = pocket + monsters
• Romcom = romantic + comedy
• Splatter = splash + spatter
• Stash = store + cache
• Velcro = velvet + crochet
• Vlog = video + log
• Webinar = web + seminar
• Wi-Fi = wireless + fidelity

Did any of those surprise you? What others can you think of?

Put together portmanteaus in your own writing

Next time you sit down to write a short story, poem, or blog and you try to describe something but nothing comes to you, try putting two words together. Write down all the words that are like the word you’re trying to come up with and practice combining them together. See if any of them stick. It takes some guts to create a new word, but give yourself the freedom to try. As you can see from these many examples, they can have staying power and audiences enjoy them.