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:''For other uses, see Portmanteau (disambiguation) .'' A portmanteau (plural: '''portmanteaus''' or '''portmanteaux''') is a term in Linguistics that refers to a word or Morpheme that fuses two or more Grammatical Functions . A folk usage of ''portmanteau'' refers to a Word that is formed by combining both sounds and meanings from two or more words (e.g. 'animatronics' from 'animation' and 'electronics', or 'porte-manteau' itself from the French words ''porte'' (carry) and ''manteau'' (coat)). In linguistics, these folk portmanteaux are called '' Blend s''. Typically, Portmanteau words are Neologism s. ETYMOLOGY This word was coined by Lewis Carroll in '' Through The Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There '', in which it is likened to the French word "porte-manteau" for coat rack. In the book, Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice words from '' Jabberwocky '', saying, "Well, ''slithy'' means ''lithe'' and ''slimy'' …. You see it's like a '''portmanteau'''—there are two meanings packed up into one word." Carroll often used such words to a humorous effect in his work. 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. "Portmanteau word" was the original phrase used to describe such words (as listed in dictionaries published as late as the early 1990s ), but this has since been abbreviated to simply "portmanteau" as the term (and the type of words it describes) gained popularity. "Portmanteau" is rarely used for its original meaning in current English, that type of travelling case having fallen into disuse. In Queensland , Australia , it is shortened to 'Port', and used as slang for a schoolbag. PORTMANTEAU MORPHEMES A portmanteau morpheme is a Morpheme that fuses two grammatical categories (see Fusional Language ). The classical example of such a morpheme in English is the verbal suffix ''-s''. This particular suffix carries (i.e., ports) at least four distinct inflectional meanings and imparts each of these onto the verb's meaning:
Spanish verb suffixes are also exceptionally fusional, with very many portmanteaux in the Spanish inflectional system. PORTMANTEAU WORDS A portmanteau word is a word that fuses two function words. This use overlaps a bit with the folk term Contraction , but linguists tend to avoid using the latter. Example: In French, ''à'' (to) + ''les'' (the) becomes ''aux'' (), a single indivisible word that contains both meanings. FOLK USAGE Outside linguistics, the words that are called blends are popularly labeled '''portmanteaux'''. The term '''portmanteau''' is used in a different, yet still not clearly defined sense, to refer to a blending of the parts of two or more words (generally the first part of one word and the ending of a second word) to combine their meanings into a single Neologism . CELEBRITY COUPLES Many Magazine s and Television programs such as '' US Weekly '', '' People Magazine '', '' Entertainment Tonight '', and '' Access Hollywood '' use portmanteaus of the names of celebrities who are romantically involved with one another. The most famous is " Bennifer " (for is Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez ); other widely used named include Tomkat (for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes ), Filliam H. Muffman (for William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman) and Brangelina (for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ). SEE ALSO
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