Talk:Portmanteau

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[edit] The ubiquity of portmanteau

Why is it that 99% of Wikipedia pages link to portmanteau?!?! I am so tired of reading a Wikipedia page only to see YET AGAIN this stupid word linked over and over and over! Every single possible time! It's like some kind of in-joke with Wikipedia authors. Or maybe there is a drinking game? Take a drink every time you manage to include the word portmanteau in your wiki page or you read someone else's wiki page which contains the word portmanteau. Or maybe we have some OCD linguist going around marking up every single portmanteau in Wikipedia. "Oh my god, someone might read this word and not realise what a brilliant portmanteau it really is!"

...... Oh well... cheers. Carry on. 24.222.66.229

Hear, bloody, hear! 203.79.95.93 11:56, 11 September 2006 (UTC)


Normally I don't chime in on 'nitpicky' type comments, but I will definitely have to agree with this point! I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. I swear there must be a "word a year" calendar somewhere that has "portmanteau" for 2006. There seem to be quite a few people who are extremely proud to know what this word means. Oh well, it's a very minor thing of course, but still a bit annoying. Technocratic 13:51, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

I checked this article just because I was wondering if there was some mention of this horrifying phenomenon. GRRRRRRRRR Korossyl 22:17, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Me too - ChrisKennedy(talk) 09:05, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
Yes, please remove them when you notice them. In many cases they aren't even the correct usage. In general, also, if a word is so abnormal that it requires a link because otherwise no one will understand it, that's no good. —Centrx→talk • 10:40, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
Oh, thank G-d it wasn't just me who noticed this! Aiugh! Zero sharp 08:05, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] On blends and portmanteaus

A number of inaccuracies need ameliorated. I began doing so, but it's getting late and I'm tired...!

1. A portmanteau doesn't fuse grammatical functions - it "fuses" morphemes.

2. In the context of linguistic definition, to refer to a "folk" usage of portmanteau is to appeal to the strictly linguistic conception of folk etymology as a "naive misunderstanding of a more or less esoteric word that makes it into something more familiar." (Algeo, The Origins and Development of the English Language.) This is not an appropriate qualification. A portmanteau may very well be a more popular (and is the older) term for the more jargonistic "blend", but it is not somehow a "naive misunderstanding" by virtue of its origin or popularity.

3. A portmanteau is used two ways: synonymously with blend, and to refer to "a factitious word" (OED) which is a blend in the Carrolian sense. For the first definition, this article need only link to the blend article; the rest of the article should describe, provide the etymology and give examples of portmanteau in its distinctive sense, eg by explaining why "Bennifer" is a portmanteau in this latter sense while "smog" isn't. (Bennifer is a neologism; smog was, but is now in common usage.)


[edit] Definition from Merriam-Webster

[We have public-domain dictionaries available to us; can we please provide one of those definitions without an link to M-W?]


Removing:

The Merriam-Webster definition of portmanteau gives two meanings:

  1. a large suitcase
  2. a word or morpheme whose form and meaning are derived from a blending of two or more distinct forms (as smog from smoke and fog)

Whoever removed this made other parts of the article make no sense! yuliya 00:03, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pronounciation notes

These pronounciation notes look ugly and clutter the first sentence, IMO. A better solution is needed for this kind of information, maybe something similar to the links to articles in other languages? Jeronimo

[edit] List of examples

Leaving aside the fact that this is meant to be an article, and not just another interminable list, I'm removing some whith I don't think qualify as portmanteaus:

  • chocoholic from chocolate and alcoholic
  • WorkAholic (alt. workoholic - the suffix 'holic' means 'addict'.
"chocoholic" does not incorporate the meaning of "alcoholic". rather, it's a back-formation, extracting a suffic "-oholic" from "alcoholic" to mean addiction.
  • Sheriff
from what?
 Sheriff is from 'Shire' and 'Reeve'
That doesn't make Sheriff a portmanteau; that's a natural grammatical shortening, it's still "shire-reeve" it is just unstressed & so evolved through dialect. Nagelfar 16:54, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
  • byte from by eight
wrong, according to byte.
  • factoid
what is "-oid" from? As far as I can tell, it's a morpheme used to mean something a little like "pseudo-"
again, these are back-formations IMO. "-ware" is a suffix which was removed from "hardware" to coin "software"; this is just applying it to other roots.

why do these simple lists of examples have to balloon into all this? What's the point? We'll end up having to prune most of them off into a "list of portmanteaus", and wikipedia is not a dictionary. -- Tarquin 08:19 Oct 3, 2002 (UTC)

it's shear balloonacy! see http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/popcult/handouts/blends78.html for this and other examples of 'Lexical blending'.

Shareware, Adware, spyware, nagware are not backformations. For example, shareware is not simply 'the morpheme 'Ad' plus the morpheme Ware' - it is the word advertisement plus the word software. Otherwise for example Adware would be any 'ware' which is used by people in the advertising industry - instead of specifically 'software' containing advertisements. for this reason they fit the classic portmanteau definition.

--Leon

Would anyone object if I got rid of the massive list of examples and trimmed it down to about three? -Martin

Nope. Keep the best ones. Ditch the dull & contentious ones. Wikipedia is not a collection of lists ... -- Tarquin 22:18 Dec 13, 2002 (UTC)

In an act of cowardice I moved it to List of portmanteaus. Martin

I removed Internet, as the word is a portmanteu, but incorrectly stated. The proper words would be interconnected and network. The etymology is internetwork as per U.S. Department of Defense 1986. An internetwork refers to an interconnected system of networks, especially computer networks. Being international has no relevence to the term. --sysg0d

[edit] Jabberwocky discussion

I could have sworn the words in "Jabberwocky" were derived from Old English. If they are truly portmanteaus, they need an explanation of which words they combine because it certainly isn't obvious. Tokerboy 01:41 Oct 20, 2002 (UTC)

In a letter he wrote "... as to 'burble', if you take the three verbs bleat, murmer, and warble, then select the bits I have underlined [here italicized], it certainly makes 'burble', though I am afraid I can't distinctly remember having made it in that way." Elsewhere, I remember he wrote that "slithy" was a combination of slimy and lithe. The other words have various reasons for existence, as it were, but I don't think many of them are portmanteaus. Unless someone knows better, that list can be deleted, I think, with the relevent parts incorporated into some other list, or (probably better) into the beginning of the article. I don't fancy doing it, however... --Camembert


The Portmanteau words in Jabberwocky are the 'original' Portmanteau words. It was in describing this poem that the term itself was first coined. (They aren't old english words although Lewis Carrol intends to convey the impression that they are). Check out the relevant text at [(old)] "http://web.archive.org/web/20021016000346/http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/carroll6.html" [or (new) "http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/439.html"], or read Through the Looking Glass.

--Leon

The external link was bad. Please test it and see if it should not be removed. Fred Bauder 15:28 Dec 13, 2002 (UTC)

[edit] From french ?

Is there any link with the french word porte-manteaux which literally means Jacket-Holder ?

  • Yes, there is. That word refers to a kind of suitcase with two storage spaces. The idea of a portmanteau word comes from the idea of packing two meanings into one word.
  • No there is not. They share an origin, but the term comes from the English word, which refers to a suitcase with two storage spaces, which comes from the French porter and manteau. The French word meants coat rack/coat tree or coat hanger.
    • Funny, in French (from France) they say "mot-valise"... fr:mot-valise
  • I would like to insist on the fact that in French, portemanteau (as in the suitcase or the coat rack), is spelled portemanteau and not porte-manteaux. As a native French speaker and the owner of a Quillet-Flamarion 1956 dictionary (which allows me to check for former uses and spellings of the word), I am often offended by the way non-English languages are tramped upon by people who don't even take the time to check their sources.
Yup, I'm French :P ! It is written "portemanteau" in dictionaries, but lots of people write it "porte-manteaux". There is no good or bad writing, I think we can say that both writings are correct. That is how languages evolve ! ;) --Totophe64 21:23, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
See Talk:Portmanteau#Plural, below. The spelling porte-manteaux is more conservative. -SM 22:36, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Compound Word?

Are "portmanteau" and "compound word" synonymous? My inclination is no, that portmanteaux may drop intervening syllables or letters (as in "smog" and "brunch") while compound words never do (as in "rainbow" and "baseball").

--zandperl 04:49, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

No, not at all. Your inclination is very much on the right track. Compounds are words that are formed by combining two or more complete, inflected words, following conventional rules. Blends (in the strict linguistic sense defined in the article) are formed by combining content words, but they are distinctive in that they are combined in very unconventional ways, that usually strike one as "clever". 209.204.158.254 02:30, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Perhaps a section that contrasts the difference between portmanteaux and compound words should be added to the article?

[edit] Brand names

Wikipedia is not a corporation. Ergo, its name can't be an example of "corporate brand name". Ditto for Wiktionary. So I suggest we remove one of (or both) these examples and add a real corporate brand name instead (can't think of a good example now). Paranoid 10:11, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Massive pruning

Some of you may have noticed that there are now only five examples of frankenwords in the article. Don't freak out, portmanteau contributors. Your contributions have not vanished into oblivion. I have relocated them all at the List of portmanteaux page. Please also make any new contributions there.--------Kelisi 2005/2/5

[edit] Frankenword

What the hell is that? Can anyone who knows write at least a stub on it? Because currently, frankenword redirects here, but this article does not explain what a frankenword is. Lev 11:35, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[Just in case you're curious: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/med-magazine/October2004/23-New-Word-frankenword.htm]

This article actually used to explain the term frankenword, but somewhere along the line it was taken out. I have put it back in. Please, nobody take it out! 131.212.62.90 22:10, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Slithy

You can't really say that slithy is not a portmanteau, since it is the first example of a portmanteau Carroll ever gave. It seems he preferred "creative" portmanteaus to "regular" ones such as smog. For example, in the preface to The Hunting of the Snark, he explains the concept using fruminous, formed from fuming and furious. -Lev 20:44, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Article breakup backwards

I don't dislike the idea of the article breakup, but methinks it went the wrong direction. The linguistics meaning seems to be the one that should get the predominant coverage under portmanteau, as it has a lot more content, and it has a lot more potential content. — Stevie is the man! Talk | Contrib 21:50, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Further, it appears that most articles referring to this term mean to link to the linguistics meaning, and this now means that a lot of cleanup is in store unless we transpose the breakup. — Stevie is the man! Talk | Contrib 22:00, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

OK, you have a point there. I did the breakup in this way in order to avoid parentheses. So do you propose to move the travelling case to Portmanteau (travelling case) and the portmanteau word back to portmanteau with a disambig note linking to Portmanteau (travelling case)? - Lev 20:52, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Sounds great to me. Thanks! Also please change portmanteau word to redirect to portmanteau. — Stevie is the man! Talk | Contrib 21:00, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Portmanteaus vs. Syllabic abbreviations

Any objections to removing all syllabic abbreviations from the List of portmanteaus? - Lev 20:30, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

  • On the contrary, syllabic abbrevations are NOT portmanteau, which are semantic in nature, not phonetic (i.e., mix the meanings of the two words, don't just mix them so it's easier/quicker to pronounce). The previous example in french (+les = aux) was not a portmanteau at all. Besides, it was in french, so it was kind of irrelevant here (no offense to the french - I'm french myself). Changed back to the classic example of infotainment.
Agree. According to the Abbreviation article, "A syllabic abbreviation (SA) is an abbreviation formed from (usually) initial syllables of several words, such as Interpol for International police" and "SAs should be distinguished from portmanteaux." Therefore, the example of 'Nabisco' should be removed from the Portmanteau article, as well as other examples which are simply phonetic and qualify as SA's.

[edit] Linguistics Meaning

This article doesn't define how linguists use the word, it merely says how they do not. I would like it if someone who knows could fill in how they do use it. Thanks. Luqui 07:59, 2005 May 2 (UTC)

[edit] Original Meaning

The article doesn't state the original meaning of `portmanteau', i.e. a suitcase which opens into two compartments.

[edit] Pronounciation

The pronounciation is not to be found on the article page, that I can see. thx

  • I second the call for a pronunciation. Would it be legal just to copy it from a dictionary? If I thought it was I would add it myself.

Try and use IPA. I don't think most dictionaries use IPA.~user:orngjce223how am I typing? 18:42, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

A sound-alike pronunciation is much more understandable to the average reader, who should not be required to learn IPA. —Centrx→talk • 20:58, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pseudonymity

Is this a pormenteau word? It's pseudonym + anonymity. (Very possibly a Frankenword, really.) Do please let me know -- I've just done a major edit on Pseudonymity, and I'd like to feel confident identifying the term as P. Best regards. Bryan 02:42, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

No, I believe the -ity is just a natural inflection of the word to make a noun for the condition of being pseudonymous. For what it's worth, you may get a better response at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language. —HorsePunchKid→龜 03:18, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
I would also say no. Both are modifications of a root nym, which, while not a word, does mean name. Both pseudo and an are standard prefixes in English, and ity is a standard suffix, so pseudonymity = prefix-root-suffix, not a portmanteau. -- stillnotelf has a talk page 02:37, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Plural

The plural can be spelled either way. I googled both -x and -s along with the word linguistics just to make sure i didn't end up with anything irrelevant and the s got 720 and the x got 630 hits. And I saw a dictionary site that explicitly said either was fine. Dave 01:14, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

the -x in portmanteaux is from the inflection of the underlying French, and so arguably more correct, like cacti, bureaux, fora, phenomena, criteria, appendices, biscotti as well as the uninflected plurals of Asian languages bonsai, shumai. -SM 19:21, 13 December 2005 (UTC)
Arguably, but not very well. The word in french is a compound, anyway, so it doesn't pluralize in the regular way. And also, catus doesn't come from Latin, so there's no way it should be on that list. Cacti was created by a fun leveling process. Same with octopus/octopi. Dave 20:47, 13 December 2005 (UTC)
...and don't get me started on "virii"! —HorsePunchKid→龜 2005-12-15 08:14:29Z
Dave, I'll admit, your point was sound enough that you sent me scurrying to my Micro Robert. It has [whew!] des portmanteaux. However, it seems to hedge on other compounds, like des porte-drapeau(x) and des porte-couteau(x), perhaps still new enough to retain the hyphen, and so the option. I probably got stuck on cactus, though Webster's Collegiate gives the root as ' (but not present in Liddle & Scott's Greek-English Lexicon), and the Wiki instagreek declensorator suggests ', so maybe not so completely contrived. Finally, I'll share with HorsePunchKid my latest sighting (in a post somewhere) of ignorami =)-SM 20:20, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Carrol or the Linguists

If Carrol invented the word then his meaning should come first with an explanation. Is it fair to call those words fitting his definition to be false portmanteaux?--Gbleem 22:22, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes. Lots of words change meanings over time, and examples that fit the original meanings then don't fit anymore. Also, since the definition on the page now fits the current scientific usage, I think it should stay as it is. Dave 22:40, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
Your point is valid, but perhaps "false" could be replaced with "in Carroll's original sense"? 82.23.218.45 23:36, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

What about the Italian/musical word portamento, which means to glide from one note to the next (effectively joining the two)? In this case it seems more likely that the root is the Italian verb "portare" (to carry) than an English adaptation of a French word...I really think there's more going on here than this Lewis Carroll business. Here's hoping someone does some deeper research on it as I haven't find anything yet. **In any case, there should be a citation for the statement about Carroll coining the term.24.151.54.61 07:16, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Synonyms?

Are there any synonyms for this word? --Dara 04:22, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Unclear sentence

Carroll used such words to humorous effect in his poems, especially Jabberwocky, which Humpty Dumpty is explaining to Alice.

This sentence really makes no sense at all. Neither Humpty Dumpty nor Alice appear in Jabberwocky and the clause on the end is incomplete at best. I'm not exactly sure what this is trying to say.

Nevermind, I get it now... In Through the Looking-Glass, HD is explaining to Alice what Jabberwocky meant. *slaps forehead* I've tried to make the sentence clearer. -- Shinmawa 09:20, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Bumper year

I dropped this from the article: "2005 was a bumper year for the overuse of media portmanteaux. Examples include: Brangelina (for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie); TomKat (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes); and Scalito (Samuel Alito and Antonia Scalia)."

"2005 was a bumper year", says who? Or is this original research consisting of the subjective impressions of the writer? "overuse" is judgemental and doesn't belong regardless. Referring to usage in a specific year like this also violates the style recommendations (don't include stuff that'll get old fast). I don't feel this paragraph added anything to the article. --BluePlatypus 18:31, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Aha.. apparently a recent edit by an anonymous user. Should've simply reverted it, I guess. --BluePlatypus 18:33, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] aux

Responding to an anon IP's change of the example of a portmanteau word from French aux to English infotainment, infotainment doesn't exemplify a portmanteau in the technical sense. In the field of linguistics, infotainment isn't a portmanteau. Rather, it is a blend. A portmanteau has to have function word status (it has to fulfill grammatical roleswords like the, and, etc.without adding meaningful content to the sentence. Contractions (in any language) are great examples of portmanteaus. The difference the anon IP tried to reference between "phonetic contractions" and "semantic contractions" can hardly be said to exist when the single phoneme /o/ can carry all the information that is there in aux.

sorry, forgot to signDave 00:15, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
I am the Anon IP. Point taken: although the Merriam-Webster considers that blends and portmanteaus are just blends (giving as examples brunch and smog respectively), I trust your opinion. I think that (as Merriam-Webster does) the article should consider the folk usage as the primary meaning of the word, and point out that in linguistics the meaning is different (instead of the other around). Also, maybe an example in English would be appropriate, instead of 'aux' which is not very enlightening for non-french-speaking people.
Nooooo. Simple contractions are not portmanteau words, they are contractions. Infotainment and watergate are portmanteau words. French aux is not an example. -SM 22:38, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
Same Anon IP here. I agree. That "+les=aux" business seems ridiculous to me, Infotainment is really the archetype of portmanteaux. The fact that in specialized linguistic circles the meaning of the word is different doesn't seem relevant to me. My background isn't in linguistics so I'll let someone else decide though.
I agree: à+les > aux is completely irrelevant and misleading here. That's a completely different concept (not only since 'aux' does not contain any letter from 'à'+'les'...). — MFH:Talk 22:24, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Confusion of meanings

There seems to be confusion between the French meaning of the word porte-manteau (sp?) ("coat-rack") and the English meaning ("large suitcase"). The Etymology section kind of fluctuates back and forth, ending with the strange "Portmanteau" is rarely used for its original meaning in current English, that type of travelling case having fallen into disuse." - whereas travelling cases hadn't been mentioned. It looks like Carroll *was* referring to a suitcase when he talked about meanings being "packed together". Whereas our folk etymology refers to coat racks: "In modern French, a "portemanteau" (from "manteau" (coat) and the verb "porter", to carry) is a coat rack: it gathers at a single location the different coats of different people, hence the linguistic idea of fusing different words into one."

Can someone attempt to straighten this one out? A link to portmanteau (suitcase) would probably help too...Stevage 17:47, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree. If no one else does it, I'll have a go. -- Beardo 06:03, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
Another meaning, although related to "coat rack" is mentioned in my Norwegian dictionay. There a portmanteau is a person in the service of a king whose duty it is to carry the king's coat, a human "coat rack" in other words. __meco 06:16, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I saw a recent version of Alice in Wonderland recently and Humpty Dumpty was asked by Alice what SlimeIsh is (I think), He said "it is like a portmanteau" (like the suitcase with two halves that can be used) and then later when she asked about another word, he said "it is also a portmanteau word"... So I know what the two are.. who figured it out first is the question...

Cheers Gregorydavid 06:24, 8 May 2006 (UTC) PS now we need to rename the articles correctly..

[edit] Pormanteau vs Blending

Don't you think that portmanteau is just another name for blending, consequently they both refer to the same linguistic phenomenon. I suggest that the single article be created for blending and portmanteau, with the reference to various names suggested by scholars (blending, portmanteau, telescoping ...)

I think that blending the articles would be a good idea. Stephen Turner (Talk) 21:48, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
Agreed. Nmacri (Talk) 21:06, 14 May 2006 (CST)
In my browsing of wikipedia, I think this deserves its' own page. [1] It's certainly worthy. --Thoughtfix 18:59, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] portmateau when partially a proper noun, capitalized?

If the first element of a portmateau is a proper noun but the portmateau itself isn't, do you capitalized it? The example where I get my concern is the word Japanoise, a music genre composing the words Japanese & noise. Nagelfar 16:51, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Synthesizers

I'm deleting the note about the "portmanteau" function on synths, because what it describes is called a portamento on a string instrument and really anywhere else in music, and I'm pretty sure that that author confused the two words. I don't know synths too well, though, so correct me if I'm wrong.

[edit] Wikipedia not a portmanteau?

I perhaps am wrong, but I have always believed that for a word to be an actual portmanteau it is comprised of parts of both words from which it originated, but not contain the entire of either:

spoon - fork --> spork
breakfast - lunch --> brunch
cellular - telephone --> cellphone etc.

And, for this reason I would have believed that Wikipedia is infact not a portmanteau, based on its definition here which states:

“ the word Wikipedia itself is a portmanteau of wiki and encyclopedia. ”

which means it contains the entire word "wiki", not just a part of it. Thoughts? - Glen Stollery 21:06, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Check out the description of the formation of portmanteau itself -> porter + manteau. Clearly if the word defining the term is formed this way then we can't be too perscriptive. - Peripitus (Talk) 09:01, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
Isn't it "wiki-wiki" anyway? TheKMantalk 13:55, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
I think that if at least one of the parts is a part of a word then it is a portmanteau. Hence portmanteau itself and wikipedia (pedia being the second part of encyclopedia. Thanks! 18:04, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
and 'aux' is not !! — MFH:Talk 22:25, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bennifer: the first celebrity couple portmanteau?

Surely 'Pickfair' was the first example? Originally the name of the mansion of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Snr it was thereafter used in the press as shorthand for the couple.

I think that section of the article should be trimmed a bit. It's a little too fan-obsessive. Mentioning the practice and giving an example or two is fine, but let's save the list for a list. Elijahmeeks 15:48, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Celebrity couples & pairing name

Why are imaginary TV show couples listed under celebrity couples? Shouldn't they have their own subheading, since imaginary characters are not exactly celebrities? Also, as a Luka/Abby fan since the very beginning, I can most definitely state that that pairing was called Luby back then, at least in its first incarnation - just one B there.

VjeraNadaLjubav 17:07, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Paragraph Edit/Removal

I am wondering about the following paragraph from the article:

Lewis Carroll, cited in the entymology section, uses the word portmanteau to mean suitcase, the English portmanteau, not coat rack, French porte-manteau. The fact that suitcase, not coat-rack, is the correct etymology is vivdly clear when one considers that Carroll uses the words "packed up," and "two" (the original portmeanteau was a two compartment, folding item). The linguistic portmanteau represented by the word webinar clearly has nothing to do with a coat rack, as a coat-rack has nothing to do with packing meanings together.

Am I the only one who feels that this paragraph requires either editing or removal? Clearly nobody knows exactly what Carroll had in mind when he wrote portmanteau and so one theory is just as relevant as another. I could argue easily, for example, that Carroll was referring to the French porte-manteau in that the word itself is comprised of two distinct words -- that it is a word with two meanings "packed up" into one.

This is a POV issue and, in addition, also has a tone that is a bit too... hostile, in my opinion. Any objections to my editing/removing it? -Sarfa 20:15, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] gulag right here?

isnt' gulag a syllabic abbreviation rather than a portmanteau as well? 194.80.31.68 16:27, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Frankenword

Frankenword is not an perfect synonym of portmanteau. Frankenword connotes a word with an awkward or offputting sound or concept (e.g. infotainment, feminazi or stalkerazzi) unlike portmanteau which may be melifluous or clever. The difference is explained in this good article.[2] Could some some cunning linguist with a little time add a paragraph making this distinction? H Bruthzoo 00:56, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Overuse

Is it just me, or is portmanteau used a lot in wikipedia articles? I wonder what they would use on french wikipedia? JE at UWO U/T 06:08, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

Could we get a pronunciation guide for this? --Spyforthemoon 21:01, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Godisnowhere

Removed this text In religion, "Godisnowhere" has been used by a Denver, CO based Christian evangelism team since 1996. from the article. While it does have two different combinations, neither of those combinations are actual portmanteau.

[edit] "Portmanteau" vs. "portmanteau word"

The article states that the original phrase "portmanteau word" has "since been abbreviated to simply 'portmanteau' as the term (and the type of words it describes) gained popularity" (and, indeed, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau_word redirects to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau) This being the case, in the interest consistency, shouldn't the latter be used to refer to the concept in question across wikipedia? Frankly, this site is the only place I've personally ever seen the extended phrase used, and while I'll readily admit that such anecdotal evidence is ridiculously weak, the article in question agrees; so why use the awkward-sounding, anachronistic version rather than the more concise, generally-accepted one?134.29.33.119 22:41, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

"Portmanteau" still exists as a word in its original meaning, as a "large leather suitcase that opens into two hinged compartments" — which is where Lewis Carroll borrowed the term, "portmanteau word," from. This type of suitcase in turn took its name from "porter" ("to carry") and "manteau" ("a cloak"). logologist|Talk 00:09, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
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