- A portmanteau is a linguistic blend that occurs when the sounds, spellings and meanings of two words are combined to make a new one.
- The term ‘portmanteau’ itself is a testament to this blending words phenomenon. It is derived from the French words for ‘to carry’ (porte) and ‘cloak’ (manteau).
- Interestingly, the word portmanteau itself is also a blend of two different words: porter (to carry) and manteau (a cloak).
- The linguistic sense of portmanteau is a single-morpheme word that substitutes for (and functions grammatically as) two morphemes.
- And How are They Formed? A portmanteau pronounced as (PORT-man-TOW) is actually an autological word, where its meaning explains exactly what it does.
- The etymology of portmanteau comes from porter, the French word meaning “to carry,” and manteau, the Old French word for “cloak.”
- The French word portmanteau describes a two-part suitcase. It combines the words porte, which means “to carry,” and manteau, meaning “cloak.”
- 2. a two-compartment suitcase that has not been manufactured since the 1800s. 1. Wikipedia is a portmanteau of the words "wienie" and "encyclopedia".
- The word “jackalope” is a portmanteau of “jackrabbit” and “antelope”, an archaic spelling of “antelope”.
- Portmanteau words, also called blended words or simply portmanteaux, are words that are formed by splicing or merging two other words together.