English Portmanteau Words
Have you ever felt so hungry that it made you angry? We call that feeling hangry in English! Ever wondered if someone was your friend or enemy? Frenemies! What's an icon that expresses an emotion? An emoticon!
What is a Portmanteau?
First, let's define portmanteau. A portmanteau word is a words that is made by combining two other words.
Portmanteau is a French word (pronounced /pɔːtˈmantəʊ/ in English) for a big suitcase that can hold many things. Because these words "hold" more than one other word inside them they were called portmanteaus by Lewis Carroll, the writer of Through the Looking Glass, who enjoyed using them in his writing).
Although the French plural of the word is portmanteaux, in English we can just say portmanteaus
How we form portmanteaus
Usually, it's the first half of one word added to the second half off another word. For example, a TV show that has both drama and comedy is sometimes called a dramedy. If you want to chill and relax with your friends, you can say, We're just chillaxing. When they first made hotels that where you could park your motorcar, they called them motels.
One of our favorites is brunch, which is breakfast + lunch. What could be better?
Not all portmanteaus are formed in the same way, though. For example, you have probably heard the word sitcom used to describe shows like Friends and How I Met Your Mother, right? Well, sitcom comes from the phrase situational comedy.
Surprising Portmanteaus
Oxford Dictionaries points out that there are some common words that you may not realize are portmanteaus:
moped = motor + pedal
modem = modulator + demodulator
motel = motor + hotel
dumbfound = dumb + confound
bash = bang + smash
hassle = haggle + tussle
web + seminar = webinar
brother + romance = bromance
friend + enemy = frenemy
hungry + angry = hangry
Examples of Common Portmanteaus in English
Here's a longer list of portmanteau examples. After each word in the list are the two words that form it and its definition.
| # | Word | Part A | Part B | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hangry | hungry | angry | so hungry you are angry |
| 2 | motel | motor | hotel | a hotel for people driving |
| 3 | podcast | iPod | broadcast | a radio show for iPods or smartphones |
| 4 | spork | spoon | fork | a spoon with tines on the end |
| 5 | brainiac | brain | maniac | someone very smart |
| 6 | emoticon | emotion | icon | an icon that expresses an emotion |
| 7 | snark | snide | remark | sarcasm, especially online |
| 8 | dramedy | drama | comedy | a show with both serious and funny parts |
| 9 | sitcom | situational | comedy | a tv show based on funny situations |
| 10 | frankenfood | Frankenstein | food | genetically modified food |
| 11 | Bollywood | Bombay | Hollywood | the Indian movie industry |
| 12 | bromance | brother | romance | a close friendship between men |
| 13 | crunk | crazy | drunk | really drunk and crazy |
| 14 | edutainment | education | entertainment | educational entertainment |
| 15 | mansplaining | man | explaining | when men explains to women rudely | 16 | sexture | sexy | texture | a sexy, messy hairstyle |
Can you add any to this list?
Using Portmanteaus
It's important to know that some portmanteaus, like chillax, are just for fun and extremely casual. We'd rarely use them in places like school or work. Others are not necessarily casual, but not used very commonly, such as dramedy. And then some have become everyday words, like motel and brunch.
In the media, it's common to combine the names of celebrities who are dating to refer to them as a couple. The first was Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie), and others have followed: Kimye (Kim Kardashian + Kanye West), Billary (Bill + Hillary Clinton).
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