portmanteaus
Large hinged luggage
Portmanteaus is the plural of portmanteau, a word formed by blending parts of two other words: *brunch* from breakfast and lunch, *smog* from smoke and fog, *Brexit* from Britain and exit.
The term originally meant a large traveling bag that opens into two hinged compartments—the linguistic sense captures how two words fold together into one.
Internet culture produces portmanteaus constantly: *chillax*, *frenemy*, *staycation*.
Morning-afternoon meal hybrid
- smogSunlight-activated urban pollution
- motelRoadside lodging for drivers
- sporkDual-purpose eating tool
- bromanceClose male platonic bond
chillax · glamping · labradoodle · staycation · frenemy · hangry · mocktail · sitcom
Combining into uniformity
- coinageInvented term or currency
- neologismNewly created expression
- wordplayVerbal wit techniques
- morphologyStudy of structural forms
combination · fusion · hybrid · etymology · lexicon · vocabulary · compound · formation
brunch
Morning-afternoon meal hybrid
- smogSunlight-activated urban pollution
- motelRoadside lodging for drivers
- sporkDual-purpose eating tool
bromance · chillax · glamping · labradoodle · staycation · frenemy · hangry · mocktail · sitcom · infomercial
blending
Combining into uniformity
morphology · combination · fusion · hybrid · etymology · lexicon · vocabulary · compound · formation · contraction
blog
Online personal journal
malware · webcast · podcast · hashtag · selfie · phishing · tweetstorm · clickbait · listicle · cryptocurrency
Spanglish
Hybrid of two languages
- HinglishHindi-English code-switching
- SinglishSingapore's hybrid vernacular
- BrangelinaCombined star couple name
Brexit · Bollywood · Chinatown · Jazzercise · Branson · Bennifer · Cronut · Chinglish · Eurasia · Oxbridge
- vocabularyword, words, new words, term, terms
- wordsword meanings, word origins, word history, word roots, synonyms
- etymologyword origins, word history, word origin, etymon, root words
- linguistic termsacronym, anagram, antonym, synonym, homonym
- word studyword origins, word roots, word meaning, word meanings, word formation
- language changelanguage change, linguistic diffusion, loan words, creolization, Great Vowel Shift
portmanteausacronyms
Words made from initials
initialisms · root words · derivations · abbreviations · clippings