Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A large leather suitcase that opens into two hinged compartments.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A case used in journeying for containing clothing: originally adapted to the saddle of a horseman, and therefore nearly cylindrical and of flexible make.
- n. A trunk, especially a leather trunk of small size.
- n. A hook or bracket on which to hang a garment, especially one which holds a coat or cloak securely for brushing.
Wiktionary
- n. A large travelling case usually made of leather, and opening into two equal sections.
- n. Australia, dated A school bag; often shortened to port or school port
- n. linguistics A portmanteau word.
- adj. used only before a noun, of a word, etc. Made by combining two (or more) words, stories, etc., in the manner of a linguistic portmanteau.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A bag or case, usually of leather, for carrying wearing apparel, etc., on journeys.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings
- n. a large travelling bag made of stiff leather
Etymologies
- Coined by Lewis Carroll in Through The Looking Glass to describe the words he coined in Jabberwocky. (Wiktionary)
- French portemanteau : porte-, from porter, to carry (from Old French; see port5) + manteau, cloak (from Old French mantel, from Latin mantellum). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The great champion of New York starchitecture happens to not like the term, which he calls a portmanteau for the “churlish.””
“Nobody speaks in portmanteau sentences, so they are inherently pretentious and tend to sound pompous.”
“My portmanteau is cantilivered and needs bracing...”
“I shall be very happy, however, to hear that the old portmanteau is safe at Scotsbrig, for 'you are the last man in England' that should, in the course of a kind”
“Then he would have told you that cremains falls into the same category as brunch and is known as a portmanteau word.”
The Huffington Post: New York Review: The Collected Stories Of Lydia Davis
“Lewis Carroll used the term portmanteau to describe a neologism with “two meanings packed up into one word”; his nonsense verse Jabberwocky (pictured) is full of them.”
“A portmanteau is a word that turns your wracked brain into a mental case.”
“Blends also known as portmanteau words are words created by joining words together - usually parts of two words.”
“The portmanteau was a small black leather one; I saw that gentleman in King-street,”
“I left my check book in my portmanteau, which is still on the way and I find I haven't a cent.”
Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘portmanteau’.
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250 Extra Spelling Words
Some more words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
cultellarius, barouche, palanquin, badelaire, cavetto, tregetour, tergiversate, rhododendron, rhadamanthine, thyrsus, cappelletti, bradycardia and 238 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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my fab list
blowsabella, aperçu, froideur, salubrious, abject, gallipot, mumchance, wainscot, virago, macerate, lascivious, clandestine and 181 more...
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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goodkitten's list
there is going to be a lot of words...
flammivomous, pep, electrolyzation, research, constrain, why, refrigerator, invisible, windblown, curate's egg, echoism, drumble and 103 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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WF - Word Formation Words
Classes of words and types of word formation
sniglet, protologism, portmanteau word, blend, telescope-word, frankenword, double-entendre, compound, derivative, palindrome, spoonerism, malapropism and 152 more...
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Lyngwistix
semantic, semiotic, linguistic, etc.
lexeme, sonorant, prosody, monophthong, portmanteau, dithyramb, inflection, deixis, mondegreen, screed, persiflage, polysemy and 42 more...
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Grammar, language, linguistics, rhetoric
backronym, Logogriph, logodaedaly, Acrostic, tmesis, pleonasm, sesquipedality, periphrasis, peroration, solecism, longueur, periphrastic and 15 more...
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Portmanteau-ism
portmanteau, apophenia, apoplexy, antisyzygy, canard, augur, interstice, sang-froid, agent provocateur, aposiopesis, folderol, twaddle and 5 more...
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Linguistic Terms
Words that (mostly) only linguists know.
arpabet, protologism, diacritic, macron, macaronic, capitonym, grapheme, boustrophedon, allograph, analphabetic, idiomatic, portmanteau and 40 more...
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concerning language
jargon, pidgin, Tok Pisin, Pidgin English, creole, creolize, portmanteau word, portmanteau, foodie, pleonasm, verbiage
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EN - autological words and phrases
Words and phrases expressing a property which they also possess themselves: "noun" is a noun, "English" is English, etc. If W means W AND W is (a) W, then W is an autological item. Very often but n...
noun, polysyllabic, abbrv., word, common, English, lovely, sesquipedalian, heterological, short, term, terminus technicus and 63 more...
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WF - all types of word formation
My ambition is to build a list with the names for
1. ALL types of word formation
2. the words put together by 1.
using a strict definition: e.g. "antonym", "aptronym" "palindrom...camel case, incapping, suffixing, capitalization, compound, agglutination, back-formation, blending, acronym, clipping, calque, semantic loan and 56 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for portmanteau.
dailyword Watson used this word when he was talking about Holmes moving to their new Baker Street apartment and bringing all his things with him. May 29, 2012
bilby "There were several ways of answering it, and he gave considerable thought to each one during the watches of an agitated night. That on which, when morning came, he finally decided was to pitch some clothes into a portmanteau and jump on board a boat that was leaving that very afternoon for St. Augustine."
- Edith Wharton, 'The Age of Innocence'. Sep 19, 2009
nycanthro I rather like "chillax". Reminds me of languid summer nights on my friend's rooftop listening to Marley and drinking gin&tonics.
Feminazi is pretty deplorable. And way too broadly applied.
Any opinions on infotain, imagineer or Blacksploitation? Mar 2, 2009
thesaraheffect Words like mimsy or chortle may be acceptable applications but most often this results in disgusting amalgamations such as "chillaxing" or that most irritating practice of combining the names of celebrity couples to form a word that somehow represents the relationship. Feb 23, 2009
seanahan Officially starting a tagging movement to use this word as a tag for appropriate words. Oct 21, 2007
slumry Hobot--I like the image. Imagine an unemployed robot coming to your door wanting to chop wood for his supper. That's time travel. Jul 14, 2007
slumry One hundred served! Jul 14, 2007
tulgey Still a productive method for word formation - latest example: digistraction ... something we all suffer from, more or less Apr 19, 2007
dann Originally a suitcase opening up into two separate compartments. Lewis Carroll was the first to apply it to words, via Humpty Dumpty discussing slithy in Jabberwocky. Other nice examples are spork and chortle (the latter also due to Carroll). Jan 7, 2007
uselessness I had a weird dream last night involving a fake Louisiana steamboat named the Portmanteau. I blame this site for invading my subconscious. Dec 26, 2006
tomsteele most overused word on wikipedia! Dec 23, 2006
inkhorn Good news, everyone! I've taught the toaster to feel love! Dec 12, 2006
born2badored I don't want anyone thinking were robosexuals, so if anyone asks, your just my debugger. Dec 6, 2006
marco_nj smoke + fog = smog
hobo + robot = hobot Dec 3, 2006