Portmanteau words, also called blended words or simply portmanteaux, are words that are formed by splicing or merging two other words together. The term portmanteau words comes from Chapter Six of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, in which the character Humpty Dumpty, in explaining the meaning of the word slithy in the poem “Jabberwocky”, says: “Well, slithy means ‘lithe and slimy.’ Lithe is the same as ‘active.’ You see it’s like a portmanteau — there are two meanings packed up into one word.” This is a double joke: first, a portmanteau is a suitcase, in which one would “pack” things, like the multiple meanings within portmanteau words; second, portmanteau is itself a compound word, similar to portmanteau words, in that it is from the French words for “carry” – porter – and “cloak” – manteau.
Portmanteau words have been invented for many different areas of life:
Entertainment
Bombay + Hollywood = Bollywood
Brad (Pitt) + Angelina (Jolie) = Brangelina
cyberspace + magazine = cyberzine
education + entertainment = edutainment
fan + magazine = fanzine
glitter + literati = glitterati
Locations
Channel + Tunnel = Chunnel
Oxford + Cambridge = Oxbridge
North (of) + Little Italy = NoLIta (area of New York City)
South (of) + Houston (Street) = SoHo (area of New York City)
Triangle + Below + Canal (Street) = TriBeCa (area of New York City)
Weather
smoke + fog = smog
Events
talk + marathon = talkathon
telephone + marathon = telethon
Government
medical + care = Medicare
parachute + troops = paratroops
Food
beef + buffalo = beefalo
breakfast + lunch = brunch
clam + tomato = Clamato
plum + apricot = pluot
tangerine + pomelo = tangelo
Place
cafeteria + auditorium = cafetorium
motor + hotel = motel
Adjective
gigantic + enormous = ginormous
man + fantastic = mantastic
Technological Equipment
camera + recorder = camcorder
breath + analyzer = breathalyzer
Internet Use
Many words related to blogging and other modern technology usage are portmanteau words:
web + log = blog
iPod + broadcasting = podcasting
blog + broadcast = blogcast
blog + spam advertising (or) marketing = blam
blog + beg (for contributions) = bleg
blog + biosphere = blogosphere
fake + blog = flog
mobile (generated) + blog = moblog
forage + video (on the Internet) = vorage
school (friends) + Google = Schoogle