Your choice was right!
Definition:
c) made up from different components
German translation:
portmanteau (noun) = eine Kombination von oder ein Gemisch aus mehreren Dingen; Kofferwort
*Note: German does not have an equivalent adjective form of portmanteau
---
GOOGLE INDEX
portmanteau: approximately 480,000 Google hits
Sample text:
Two Evil Eyes is essentially two short feature films spliced together into a two-hour PORTMANTEAU horror movie.
(www.dvdtalk.com)
---
Blaxploitation is a genre of film that caught on in the 1970s, the name of which is derived from a PORTMANTEAU of "black" and "exploitation."
(www.examiner.com)
Did you know?
portmanteau
adjective
- consisting of a wide range of items that are considered as a single item
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
noun
A large leather suitcase that opens into two hinged compartments
(The American Heritage Dictionary)
---
WORD ORIGIN
Portmanteau stems from the French "portemanteau," a travelling case or bag for clothes and other necessaries with two compartments that open into one. The word originally referred to a court official who carried (porte, imperative of porter, "to carry") a prince's mantel (manteau or "cloak").
As an adjective portmanteau can be used to describe a combination or melding of several things into a single item, characteristic, quality, etc. This usage was coined by Lewis Carroll in "Through the Looking Glass" when Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the meaning of the strange words in the nonsense poem Jabberwocky:
"Well, 'slithy' means 'lithe' and 'slimy'... You see it's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word."
English has many portmanteau words used in everyday language:
- brunch = breakfast + lunch
- motel = motor + hotel
- smog = smoke + fog
- pixel = picture + element
- Chunnel = channel + tunnel
- Bollywood = Bombay + Hollywood
One can also find the occasional silly portmanteau word such as beeramid (a pyramid of empty beer cans) or twitturgy, which combines liturgy (a prescribed form of church worship) + Twitter (a social microblog service).
The latter refers to the trend of sending Twitter messages to family and friends while attending a church service.
---
SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"You will like this restaurant because it has a portmanteau menu of Italian and French cuisine."
And now...
Today's Learning Tip (16):
TEACH TO LEARN
A great way to learn is to teach! Explain your word-of-the-day to a colleague or friend, provide an example and if necessary a memory aid. Test your friend after 60 minutes, and the next day. Teach it, and you'll remember it.
more learning tips
Building your English day by day...
Let others enjoy One-Word-A-Day too!
OWAD is a free English training programme run by enthusiastic people who
support open communication and personal growth. Please do spread the word
and recommend us to a colleague or friend:
Recommend it now!
Thanks!
Paul Smith
|
