A portmanteau word is created by combining two existing words. They are sometimes eventually recognized by dictionaries, but more often, they appear as slang and quickly fade into obsolescence. A common and relevant example is blog (web + log).

Lewis Caroll gets credit for the linguistic term portmanteau. In his Through the Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty explains the poem “Jabberwocky” to Alice:

Well, slithy means lithe and slimy … You see it’s like a portmanteau — there are two meanings packed up into one word.

“Jabberwocky” also gave us the now common word chortle, which is the blending of chuckle and snort.

Other common portmanteaux include:

• smog (smoke + fog)
• motel (motor + hotel)
• brunch (breakfast + lunch)
• alphabet (alpha + beta)
• bioterrorism (biological + terrorism)
• camcorder (camera + recorder)
• electrocution (electric + execution)
• spork (spoon + fork)
• sportscast (sport + broadcast)
• televangelist (television + evangelist)
• infomercial (information + commercial)
• guesstimate (guess + estimate)
• parasailing (parachute + sailing)

But the most entertaining portmanteau words are those that won’t likely ever make the dictionary — words that are invented to meet a particular need for a particular time. Those below are in this category. Whether they survive remains to be seen.

• edutainment (education + entertainment)
• slanguage (slang + language)
• ginormous (gigantic + enormous)
• mathlete (math + athlete)
• dramedy (drama + comedy)
• Chinglish (Chinese & English)
• affluenza (affluent + influenza)
• joggling (jogging + juggling)

Here are a few others  I found online, including their definitions:

• apocalapse: gap between predictions of the end of the world and when it actually happens
• skopping: a movement something like hopping and something like skipping
• jerd: someone who is both a jock and a nerd
• arrognance: the quality of being simultaneously ignorant and arrogant
• mediocracy: a democracy where mediocrity abounds
• arachnaclaustrophobia: fear of being in close spaces with spiders
• momentaneous: happening momentarily and instantaneously
• framily: a friend who is part of your family

And here’s my current favorite:

• precipilude: When you’re driving in the rain and you go under an bridge — that moment where the rain isn’t beating down on your windshield; a precipitation interlude.

Got any more? I’d love some originals.

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