Assignment 21/Quiz #11

Camden County College

Comp 102-OL8 • Spring 2021

Instructor: Michael Willmann

[email protected] • [email protected] • 856-278-3333 (m)

ASSIGNMENT#21:

Quiz #11—Portmanteaux

Name: Score: /100 Date:

The English language is impressively prolific, as anyone who keeps an eye out for new words will tell you. Neologisms come to be by any of various methods—throwing a prefix or suffix onto an existing word, verbing a noun or nouning a verb, or—a perennial favorite—mashing two existing words together. Blends , as they're called, are produced by combining other words or parts of words, like brunch from breakfast and lunch.

But isn’t that what is called a "portmanteau"? Portmanteau sounds fancier than blend (it's from Middle French porter, meaning "to carry," and manteau, meaning "mantle"). It also has the option of the exotic plural spelling portmanteaux…and it predates the pertinent use of blend by 40 years or more.

Before Humpty Dumpty used portmanteau to refer to a word produced by combining other words or parts of words in Lewis Carroll's 1871 Through the Looking Glass, the word—as Mr. Dumpty explains—referred to a large suitcase (and especially one with two main compartments): slithy, he tells, Alice, is "like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word."

The type of word isn't new, but such words didn't really come into their own until the 20th century, when motel , guesstimate , and their ilk started popping up. A typical modern blend isn't taking itself too seriously but it has a transparent meaning, which makes it just the sort of neologism that might actually have legs.

Now that you know all this, list as many blends or portmanteaux as you can. Five points for every one that you identify. Maximum 100 points.

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· education + entertainment = edutainment

· fan + magazine = fanzine

· cyberspace + magazine = cyberzine

· Oxford + Cambridge = Oxbridge

· telephone + marathon = telethon

· medical + care = Medicare

· parachute + troops = paratroops

· motor + hotel = motel

· camera + recorder = camcorder

· web + log = blog

· iPod + broadcasting = podcasting

a. Examples of Portmanteau in Art and Entertainment

The world of art and entertainment is replete with portmanteau examples, such as:

· britcom, from British and comedy (see also: sitcom)

· californication, from California and fornication

· cassingle, from cassette and single

· cosplay, from costume and play

· dramedy, from drama and comedy

· religulous, from religion and ridiculous

· sacrilicious, from sacrilege and delicious (Homer Simpson)

· scanlation, from scan and translation

· sitcom, from situational and comedy

· slurve, form slider and curve (baseball pitches)

· spife, spoon and knife

· spork, spoon and fork

· streetball, from street and basketball