Portmanteaus are created by blending parts of two words and combining two different meanings to make a new word. Brunch is a great example, a word for the meal that鈥檚 not quite breakfast or lunch. With some portmanteaus, it鈥檚 easy to see through the disguise and tell which two words are combined (like blogebrity); with others, the two words are pros at hiding.
Say it out loud, like this: 鈥渂ahdayshus.鈥� Does it sound like another word you know? How about audacious? Great! We鈥檝e got the second word down.听Now for the first. There are two ways to solve this one. Either 鈥渂od鈥� relates to body, or we boldly go where no one else has gone. It’s believed聽bodacious merges body or boldly and audacious. Use it whenever something鈥檚 鈥渙utstanding,鈥� 鈥渂razen,鈥� or 鈥渧oluptuous鈥濃�攐r all three combined!
Chortle is just plain fun. Think of what happens when someone鈥檚 said something so hilarious your cute laugh turns piggy. Yes, chortle is the lovely marriage of chuckle and snort, a word blend that deftly pushes 鈥渦ck鈥� to the curb.听This gleeful word was crafted by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass (1871). We鈥檙e glad he didn鈥檛 blend snort with giggle, though鈥斺�済ortle鈥� wouldn鈥檛 have made it long.
This portmanteau is actually not too difficult to uncloak.听Dumbfound harnesses the qualities of speechlessness and confusion. Our first word, dumb means 鈥渢emporarily unable to speak.鈥� But confuse isn鈥檛 our second word here (otherwise we鈥檇 be “dumbfused”). So where does dumb find found? It merges with confound, a synonym for confuse (but with the added sense of amazement).
When we say we鈥檙e 鈥渉ooked on ebonics,鈥� you鈥檒l probably recognize that 鈥�onics comes from the word phonics, which relates to speech sounds. The first part of ebonics (eb-) is from a rich synonym of black that half-rhymes with melody. In 1973 a group of black scholars harmonized the words ebony and phonics to create ebonics, a term descriptive of 鈥渂lack speech.鈥� This was an important contribution, because the word ebonics did away with the pejorative associations of earlier coined terms like 鈥淣onstandard Negro English.鈥�
Like ebonics, electrocute is formed by fusing the first half of one word to the ending of another word. In this case, we get electr- from electricity and –cute from execute. Unlike ebonics, we鈥檝e got a gruesome funeral march with this word鈥檚 meaning. The first electrocution, or 鈥渆xecution by electricity鈥� took place in New York State in 1890 on William Kemmler, convicted of murdering his lover with an axe. The method was first suggested in 1881 by a dentist who happened to see a drunkard instantly killed after touching the terminals of an electric generator.听
We can鈥檛 come across this word and not recall the adorable Disney character from The Little Mermaid, who often seemed to worry or panic. Think of how someone panicking moves when freaking out, and you might uncover the two words hidden in flounder. Got it? The words flounce and founder are well camouflaged, aren鈥檛 they? Flounce is a great word to describe spasmodic movements of the body, and founder means 鈥渢o sink or fall.鈥澛�Put them together, and that pretty much sums up our helpless struggles in and out of the water.
A pixel聽has nothing to do with a pixie or an elf, though if you tell your kids that there are pixels on your phone screen, they might believe it lights up thanks to magical sprites. A pixel is a cross between pix (or pics) and element, and it refers to the “the smallest element of an image that can be individually processed in a video display system.” The word came into use in the 1960s; it’s possible it originated when NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory used it to describe how TV signals work.
Galumph is another portmanteau cleverly disguised by Lewis Carroll in his poem 鈥淛abberwocky.鈥� The poem鈥檚 hero slays the monster Jabberwock, and goes 鈥済alumphing鈥� back to town with its head. Picture our brave hero astride a horse and you might get where the 驳补濒鈥�聽comes from …聽Gallop you say? Callooh! Callay! (please read the poem if you don鈥檛 get this). Now the 鈥溾�搖mph鈥� word. We鈥檇 call decapitating a Jabberwock鈥檚 head a triumph. Unfortunately for our galloping and triumphant hero, the word galumph has taken a heavy blow over the years; it鈥檚 now associated with plodding or clumsy movements.
A particularly salient word in the 21st century, but not a new one (and the activity it describes is even older).听Gerrymandering is dividing states or counties into election districts that expand one political party鈥檚 voting strength while reducing the opposing party鈥檚 electoral power. This practice was born even before the US Congress, but the portmanteau was first recorded in 1812 when then-governor of Massachusetts Elbridge Gerry orchestrated a redistricting to favor his party (it didn鈥檛 work). On a map, the contours of the scheme resembled a salamander. Thus, the lexical amphibian gerrymander was born.
When聽biochemist Casimir Funk coined the word vitamine, he thought he was describing an聽amine (“a class of compounds derived from ammonia”) that sustains life, or聽vita聽in the Latin. He got a lot of things right: he discovered a link between certain foods and health, which he attributed to vitamins, and he studied the nutrients that would come to be known as vitamins C, D, B1, and B2. So we’ll give him a pass on the initial spelling of vitamin. The E was dropped when it was discovered thiamine was an amine, but other vitamins are not.
You know what glitz means. It isn鈥檛 a buttery Ritz cracker with edible glitter. And it鈥檚 not a spritz of sweat when a fastball smashes into the catcher鈥檚 glove. No, we’re not looking for cracker brands or baseball gloves to uncloak the two words in glitz. Instead, glitz merges glamour and Ritz鈥�the luxury hotel kind, named after the Swiss entrepreneur C茅sar Ritz who built this eponymous palace of luxury in 1900s Paris. Thank goodness we鈥檝e got glitz …聽we can鈥檛 think of a better mate for glam!
The word frenemy is fairly easy to deconstruct: a frenemy is a friend and an enemy. While聽Sex and the City聽popularized this term in the 1990s, this phrase has actually been around since well before Carrie Bradshaw started drinking Cosmopolitans. Some attribute its coinage to another socialite and her sisters: aristocratic novelist Jessica Mitford. In a 1977 article, Mitford noted her sister and a “frenemy played together constantly 鈥� all the time disliking each other heartily.鈥� But the word might date back to the 1950s鈥攐r at least 1953鈥攚hen the Nevada State Journal published a joke headline with a variation on the term: “Howz about calling the Russians our聽Frienemies?” No matter who invented it, frenemy is a handy term referring to聽鈥渁 person or group that is friendly toward another because the relationship brings benefits, but harbors feelings of resentment or rivalry.鈥�
If you鈥檙e familiar with the 1970s TV show The Six Million Dollar Man, then you know bionic has to do with power supported by technology. After the character Steve Austin is injured, his body is rebuilt with cybernetic parts, endowing him with superhuman powers. He鈥檚 a biological human enhanced by electronic implants. Big hint. Did you guess which words are hiding? Coined in 1958 by a US doctor and Air Force colonel, bionic combines biology and electronics.
Sadly, another slideshow is about to end, and so we鈥檒l say 鈥済oodbye.鈥澛�We鈥檝e tried to uncloak as many sneaky portmanteaus as possible, but we鈥檝e saved for last the one that鈥檚 done the best job hiding in plain sight. Evidently, there wasn鈥檛 anything originally 鈥済ood鈥� about 鈥渂ye.鈥� Goodbye is a blended contraction of God be with ye.听Funny enough, if our French Inspector Clouseau were here, he might bid you adieu, literally 鈥渢o God.鈥�
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