Monday, September 15, 2008

Portmanteau-ver and Over

I enjoyed last week's portmanteau word, afterthoughtful, so much that I thought I would give some more examples of portmanteau words (words that are formed by combining the sounds and meanings of two different words).

Older Portmanteau Words:
Electrocute (electric + execute)
Pixel (picture + element)
Telethon (telephone + marathon)
Chortle (chuckle + snort)
Brunch (breakfast + lunch)
Motel (motor + hotel)
Camcorder (camera + recorder)
Rockumentary (rock + documentary)

More Recent Portmanteau Words:
Guesstimate (guess + estimate)
Internet (international + network)
Blog (web + log)
Smirting (smoking + flirting) came about when offices went no smoking (employees go outside to take a cigarette break and end up flirting with each other)
Emoticon (emotion + icon)
Chillax (chill + relax)
Generica (generic + America)
Irritainment (irritate + entertainment)
Swipeout (swipe + wipeout) referring to swiping a credit card when the magnetic strip is worm out
brickormortis (brick + rigormortis) referring to the poor state of the housing market
Blamestorming (blaming + brainstorming)
Bromance (brother + romance) strong male friendship

Many of these words are a result of morpheme combinations.

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