Dictionary.com Word Of The Day
Mar. 08, 2017
portmanteau\pawrt-MAN-toh, pohrt-; pawrt-man-TOH, pohrt-\noun
1. Also called portmanteau word. Linguistics. a word made by putting
together parts of other words, as motel, made from motor and hotel,
brunch, from breakfast and lunch, or guesstimate, from guess and
estimate.
2. a case or bag to carry clothing in while traveling, especially a
leather trunk or suitcase that opens into two halves.
Quotes"Well, 'slithy' means 'lithe and slimy.' 'Lithe' is the same as
'active.' You see it's like aportmanteau--there are two meanings packed
up into one word."
-- Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There,
1871
Origin of portmanteauA portmanteau was originally a kind of bag or
case that opened by a hinge into two equal parts, e.g., a Gladstone bag
or a suitcase. Lewis Carroll changed its meaning forever when Humpty
Dumpty explicates the nonsense poem Jabberwocky that Alice recites to
him in chapter six of Through the Looking Glass (1871): Well, slithy
means lithe and slimy.
You see its like a portmanteauthere are two
meanings packed up into one word. Humpty Dumpty so carried the day
that modern linguists and grammarians routinely use portmanteau and
portmanteau word as technical terms. Portmanteau in its original sense
entered English in the 16th century.More From Dictionary.comSubmit a
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