PORTMANTEAUX
A portmanteau is a form of linguistic mathematics, or what happens when you add one word to another and get a third. Smog, for example, is smoke + fog, and is suggestive of both. Another is motel for motor + hotel.
A portmanteau was originally a large suitcase that opened into two compartments. It is this old piece of luggage that Lewis Carroll was thinking of when he gave us the more modern sense of the word in Through the Looking Glass.
In Carroll's book, Humpty Dumpty explains a line of the poem Jabberwocky to Alice. It begins:
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
As Humpty explains: "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."
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PORTMANTEAUX
Key: The word's language of origin appears directly below it, and to the right of that is an example sentence and an etymology, along with any related themes.
Word |
Phonetic Pronunciation |
Part of Speech |
Definition |
flabbergast
Portmanteau |
FLA-bur-gast |
verb |
to put to confusion or embarrassment; to astonish utterly, confound |
Ex.
Etym.
Rel. Themes: |
Ms. Tippet was so flabbergasted by the appearance of her son at the wedding that she fainted, and not even the strongest smelling salts could avail her.
Perhaps a combination of flabber + aghast, suggestive of the shaking one does when utterly astonished.
Portmanteaux, Sounds Silly
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