blend word
Sign in to saveIn literature, a portmanteau, also known in linguistics and lexicography as a blend word, lexical blend, or simply a blend, is a word formed by combining the meanings and parts of the sounds of two or more words. English examples include smog, coined by blending smoke and fog, and motel, from motor (motorist) and hotel. The term "portmanteau", derived from the French , literally is a two-part piece of luggage that was first applied metaphorically in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1871) to describe the combination of words.
AI overview
A blend word is a new word created by combining the sounds and meanings of two or more existing words, like "smog" (from smoke and fog) or "motel" (from motor and hotel). Blend words matter because they show how language evolves and adapts, allowing speakers to create concise, expressive terms that capture the essence of multiple concepts at once.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
36 sectionsContents
- Classification
- Morphotactic classification
- Total blends
- Partial blends
- Morphological classification
- Overlapping blends
- Non-overlapping blends
- Morphosemantic classification
- Attributive blends
- Coordinate blends
- Blending of two roots
- Lexical selection
- Use
- Origin of the term ''portmanteau''
- Terminological history
- In France
- Derivation in the English language
- Terminology preference
- ''Portmanteau'' and ''blend''
- ''Mot-valise''
- Examples in English
- Name-meshing
- Other languages
- Modern Hebrew
- Irish
- Icelandic
- Indonesian
- Malaysian
- Japanese
- Portuguese
- Spanish
- Portmanteau morph
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
In literature, a portmanteau, also known in linguistics and lexicography as a blend word, lexical blend, or simply a blend, is a word formed by combining the meanings and parts of the sounds of two or more words. English examples include smog, coined by blending smoke and fog, and motel, from motor (motorist) and hotel. The term "portmanteau", derived from the French , literally is a two-part piece of luggage that was first applied metaphorically in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1871) to describe the combination of words.
In some languages, contamination refers to a subset of blends, where the words combined are synonyms or have similar meanings. This kind of blend can be deliberate or accidental. A blend is similar to a contraction. On one hand, mainstream blends tend to be formed at a particular historical moment followed by a rapid rise in popularity. On the other hand, contractions are formed by the gradual drifting together of words over time due to the words commonly appearing together in sequence, such as do not naturally becoming ''don't (phonologically, becoming ); however, don't'' is also an example of a portmanteau morph. A blend also differs from a compound, which fully preserves the stems of the original words. The British lecturer Valerie Adams's 1973 Introduction to Modern English Word-Formation explains that "In words such as motel..., hotel is represented by various shorter substitutes – otel... – which I shall call splinters. Words containing splinters I shall call blends". Thus, at least one of the parts of a blend, strictly speaking, is not a complete morpheme, but instead a mere splinter or leftover word fragment. For instance, starfish is a compound, not a blend, of star and fish, as it includes both words in full. However, if it were called a "stish" or a "starsh", it would be a blend. Furthermore, when blends are formed by shortening established compounds or phrases, they can be considered clipped compounds, such as romcom for romantic comedy.