portmanteau
English
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Etymology
[edit]Etymology tree
From Middle French portemanteau (“coat stand”), from porte (“he carries”, third-person singular present indicative of porter (“to carry”)) + manteau (“coat”), literally “[that which] carries coat”.
The lexical sense (sense 2) was first used figuratively by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass (1871) to describe the words he coined in the poem “Jabberwocky”, based on the concept of two words packed together, similar to a portmanteau (sense 1). Sense 3 (“portmanteau film”) is derived from this.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: pôrt-mănʹtō; IPA(key): /pɔːtˈmæn.təʊ/
- (General American) enPR: pôrt-mănʹtō, pôrt'măn-tōʹ; IPA(key): /pɔɹtˈmæn.toʊ/, /ˌpɔɹt.mænˈtoʊ/
Audio (US); /pɔɹtˈmæn.toʊ/: (file) Audio (US); /ˌpɔɹt.mænˈtoʊ/: (file) Audio (Australia): (file) - Rhymes: -æntəʊ, -əʊ
- Hyphenation: port‧man‧teau
Noun
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portmanteau (plural portmanteaus or portmanteaux)
- A large travelling case usually made of leather, and opening into two equal sections.
- Alternative forms: portemanteau, (obsolete) portmantua
- 1638, Corymbœus [pseudonym; Richard Brathwait], “His Northerne Journey: Third Part”, in Barnabees Journall; […], [London]: […] [John Haviland], →OCLC, signature P2, recto:
- A Rover tooke him unprepared, / Search't his Port-mantua, bound him faſter, / And ſent him naked to his Maſter: […]
- 1667, Charles Croke, Fortune's Uncertainty:
- Rodolphus therefore finding such an earnest Invitation, embrac'd it with thanks, and with his Servant and Portmanteau, went to Don Juan's; where they first found good Stabling for their Horses, and afterwards as good Provision for themselves.
- 1859 December 13, Charles Dickens, “The Mortals in the House”, in Charles Dickens, editor, The Haunted House. The Extra Christmas Number of All the Year Round […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Whiting, […], →OCLC, page 7, column 2:
- He brought down with him to our haunted house a little cask of salt beef; for, he is always convinced that all salt beef not of his own pickling, is mere carrion, and invariably, when he goes to London, packs a piece in his portmanteau.
- 1918 February (date written), Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Je ne parle pas français”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 71:
- I believe that people are like portmanteaux—packed with certain things, started going, thrown about, tossed away, dumped down, lost and found, half emptied suddenly, or squeezed fatter than ever, until finally the Ultimate Porter swings them on to the Ultimate Train and away they rattle. . . .
- (linguistics) A word formed by putting two words together and thereby their meaning.
- Synonyms: portmanteau word; blend, blend word, lexical blend; amalgamation, brunch word (dated), frankenword, portmantologism, telescope word
- [1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Humpty Dumpty”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, pages 126–127:
- Well, ‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy.’ ‘Lithe’ is the same as ‘active.’ You see it’s like a portmanteau⸺there are two meanings packed up into one word.]
- 1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Humpty Dumpty”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, pages 128–129:
- Well then, ‘mimsy’ is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there’s another portmanteau for you).
- 2017 December 14, Jennifer Schuessler, “‘Youthquake’ Is Oxford’s Word of the Year. Sorry, Broflake.”, in The New York Times[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 November 2019:
- It also reflects the way portmanteau coinages incorporating “bro-” and “man-” — “portmanbros,” if you will — have increasingly taken on a critical edge, in keeping with shifts in conversations around gender.
- A portmanteau film.
- 2002 December 11, Nick Bradshaw, “One day in September”, in Time Out, page 71:
- We're so bombarded with images, it's a struggle to preserve our imaginations.' In response, he's turned to cinema, commissioning 11 film-makers to contribute to a portmanteau film, entitled '11'09"01' and composed of short films each running 11 minutes, nine seconds and one frame.
- (Australia, dated) A schoolbag.
- Synonyms: port, school port
- (archaic) A hook on which to hang clothing.
- 1918 February (date written), Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Je ne parle pas français”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 72:
- But before I started that long and rather far-fetched and not frightfully original digression, what I meant to say quite simply was that there are no portmanteaux to be examined here because the clientele of this café, ladies and gentlemen, does not sit down.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
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portmanteau word — see portmanteau word
Adjective
[edit]portmanteau (not comparable)
- (attributive, linguistics) Made by combining two (or more) words, stories, etc., in the manner of a linguistic portmanteau.
- Synonym: blend
- 2002 December 14, Nicholas Lezard, “Spooky tales by the master and friends”, in The Guardian (London), page 30:
- The overall narrator of this portmanteau story - for Dickens co-wrote it with five collaborators on his weekly periodical, All the Year Round - expresses deep, rational scepticism about the whole business of haunting.
Verb
[edit]portmanteau (third-person singular simple present portmanteaus, present participle portmanteauing, simple past and past participle portmanteaued or portmanteau'd)
- (transitive) To create a portmanteau word.
- Synonym: blend
See also
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “portmanteau”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
- “portmanteau”, in Collins English Dictionary, 2011–present.
- “portmanteau”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- “portmanteau”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “portmanteau, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. - “portmanteau”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Categories:
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *per- (fare)
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from Proto-Italic
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms borrowed from Middle French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/æntəʊ
- Rhymes:English/æntəʊ/3 syllables
- Rhymes:English/əʊ
- Rhymes:English/əʊ/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English terms with quotations
- en:Linguistics
- Australian English
- English dated terms
- English terms with archaic senses
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English autological terms
- en:Lewis Carroll