I read this morning
about maglev trains, which will be
able to transport passengers some 300 miles in about half an hour. I wasn’t
familiar with the word maglev, so I
looked it up and found that it is a portmanteau word derived from magnetic and levitation.
Portmanteau words are words
formed by combining parts of two words, each of which describes some aspect of an
object. A portmanteau is a type of suitcase popular in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries that consisted of two sections that folded together, each
designed to carry a specific type of clothing. Portmanteau is itself a portmanteau word, derived from the French porter (“carry”) and manteau (“coat”).
As applied to words, the
term was more or less invented by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass, when Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the
meaning and origin of some of the words in the nonsense poem “Jabberwocky.” For example, mimsy is a combination of miserable
and flimsy, slithy comes from slimy
and lithe, and chortle (which has found a permanent place in the English language)
was created from chuckle and snort.
English has adopted a
great many portmanteau words as standard: sitcom,
labradoodle, infomercial, glitterati, newscast, televangelist, motorcycle, taxicab,
botox, camcorder, carjack, cyborg, vitamin, motel, etc.
Like Ogden Nash, who
called himself a “worsifier,” the Bard of Buffalo Bayou has also come up with a
portmanteau word to describe himself: chrymester.
Said
Lewis Carroll to Alice Liddell,
“Gee,
little girl, I think you’re swell.
You’re
so light that I can carry you,
You
know, I think I’d like to marry you!”
Said
Alice Liddell to Lewis Carroll,
“I’m
afraid that you are over a barrel,
You
might think wedlock would be heaven,
But
you forget I’m just eleven.”
And
Lewis said, “Tut, tut, a shame!
But
wait! Instead, I’ll put your name
In
my new book. Won’t that be grand?”
Ergo:
“Alice in Wonderland.”
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