Back Kombinasiewoord Afrikaans لفظ منحوت Arabic Mürəkkəb sözlər Azerbaijani Ger-malizenn Breton Portmanteau BS Mot creuat Catalan Blend Czech Cyfansoddair cywasgedig Welsh Portmanteau Danish Kofferwort German
In linguistics, a blend—sometimes known, perhaps more narrowly, as a blend word, lexical blend, portmanteau (/pɔːrtˈmæntoʊ/ ⓘ port-MAN-toh or /ˌpɔːr(t)mænˈtoʊ/ POR(T)-man-TOH; pl. portmanteaus or portmanteaux[1]), or portmanteau word—is a word formed, usually intentionally, by combining the sounds and meanings of two or more words.[2][3][4] English examples include smog, coined by blending smoke and fog,[3][5] as well as motel, from motor (motorist) and hotel.[6] The component word fragments within blends are called splinters.
A blend is similar to a contraction, but contractions are formed, usually non-intentionally, from words whose sounds gradually drift together over time due to them commonly appearing together in sequence, such as do not naturally becoming don't (phonologically, /duː nɒt/ becoming /doʊnt/). A blend also differs from a compound, which fully preserves the stems of the original words. The 1973 Introduction to Modern English Word-Formation explains that "In words such as motel, boatel and Lorry-Tel, hotel is represented by various shorter substitutes – ‑otel, ‑tel, or ‑el – which I shall call splinters. Words containing splinters I shall call blends".[7][n 1] 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.[8]
- ^ "Definition of PORTMANTEAU". 18 March 2024.
- ^ Garner's Modern American Usage Archived 27 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine, p. 644.
- ^ a b "Portmanteau". Merriam-Webster Offline Dictionary. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
- ^ "Portmanteau word". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. Archived from the original on 26 November 2007. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
- ^ "portmanteau word". Webster's New World College Dictionary. Cleveland: Wiley. 2010. ISBN 978-0-7645-7125-1.
- ^ "Portmanteau word". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
- ^ Valerie Adams, An Introduction to Modern English Word-Formation, Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1973; ISBN 0-582-55042-4, p. 142.
- ^ Fandrych, Ingrid (10 November 2008). "Submorphemic elements in the formation of acronyms, blends and clippings". Lexis (2). doi:10.4000/lexis.713.
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