Packing words

Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2019/03 - March

You’ve probably portmanteau’d and didn’t even know it.  

Originally a portmanteau was a trunk or large suitcase divided into two parts. Over time it came to mean the packing together of two words to create a new linguistic expression, such as breathalyzer (breath + analyzer), blog (web + log), bodacious (bold + audacious), and chocoholic (chocolate + alcoholic).

Lewis Caroll, in his novel, Through the Looking Glass, concocted the first literary portmanteaus in the poem “Jabberwocky”, among them, slithy (lithe + slimy) and mimsy (flimsy + miserable). 

Since then many portmanteaus have made their way to everyday language: Medicare (medical + care); motel (motor + hotel); sitcom (situation + comedy); and hangry (hungry + angry).

My personal fave is flexitarian (vegetarian + flexible).  I eat mostly veggies, poultry, and fish. Occasionally a four-legger will find its way to my plate. I’m not proud of it. Shippens (shift + happens). But flexie as I am, I won’t succumb to Frankenfood (Frankenstein + food). I avoid anything GMO along with most imported food (you don’t know how many fleepings [floor + sweepings] and pigstrils [pig + nostrils] find their way into that stuff).  The unpronounceable chemicals and fillers that pass for food these days are ridonkulous (ridiculous + donkey).

If you enjoy portmanteaus, start 2019 with a lexicon of your own word inventions. Word-smoosh yourself silly. Be careful though. Nothing too snarky (snide + remark). We don’t want to make a frenemy (friend + enemy). Chillax (chill + relax) and savor fond meme-ories (meme + memory).  

If you join the challenge and win, you’ll receive tickets to the ballet, and I’ll dress you in a portmanteau-teau with a tee emblazoned: Slanguage Rules.

You have my word on it.